Deac

              John "Deacon" Dumler

                   I really met my grandfather when I was around three or four. I sat on his lap down the ocean and watched cartoons while he sipped sweet tea and rocked back and forth in his wicker rocking chair. I remember my grandmother had decorated the house with handmade seashell reefs and pictures of my family in brightly colored picture frames. I remember combing my hair with his comb, looking in the mirror and seeing myself, seeing my grandfather watch me from his chair, feeling a great sense of love bouncing from off the reflection and hitting me square in the chest. I hardly knew this man, this old man who loved me and told me fun stories and rocked me to sleep. I knew he was my grandfather, my dad's dad, my grandmothers husband, my uncles father and my mothers father in law, but I didn't really know him. What a privilege I had to grow up with this man, to learn from him and be shaped by him. I can't say I ever truly came to know him, because as most grandparent- grandchild relationships go, the focus what on the child, not the adult. In my blind, self centered adolescents I lost the chance to really know my grandfather, and now I am left with a picture and my memories, as self centered as they are. What I can say about this man is that he was good, he was decent and honest and smart as hell. He has helped more people in one year of his life then I have in my 19 years. His funeral was quiet, and he wrote his own summary of his life. it was barely a page long, and half of it was listing off those whom he loved. I realize a lot of famous people who have done great things for this earth have passed around the same time as my grandfather, but we all have our own little worlds and in mine this was the greatest loss of all.

R.I.P Deac, I love you and will be reading your memoir which you had been working on for over 15 years, the memoir which you finished on your deathbed, the last words being "I love you, Pat, and the children, forever".