Our friend

So. About the last few days. Well, they have been completely, totally, and in all other ways, exhausting. R and I went down to Madison for my friend's funeral. It was so unbelievably hard, to say the least. (And if I may say it one more time - my R is just... he's... oh, I don't even know anymore - I'm just so blessed and grateful to be his wife!!) It was really hard, but it was also joyous, as so many of our mutual - and oh so dear - friends traveled to be there for Adam and for his sister. That was amazing! He'd have never guessed how much he meant to us all. It was amazing to have so many of us there... Amazing that all of us who lived at camp full time, during the same time that Adam and I did, were there was beyond special. What times we had.

And so we cried and we laughed together...  Oh how we cried and oh how we laughed!

Sister is in the middle and friend is on the left - and the other one is me, I guess.
We are old friends ourselves - and three of the very many who love him for all time. 

During the service, the pastor asked if anyone wanted to share any brief and appropriate stories about him - he several times emphasized brief and appropriate. While there are no shortage of stories of hilarity and love and kindness, none of our old gang stood up, except one that was pre-planned; the truthful joke being that not a single one of us has a story about him that is either brief or appropriate. Lengthy and inappropriate - sure, no problem!!  I have about one million of those, myself... most of them completely unexplainable to anyone who wasn't there.

After the service, burial, and luncheon, many of us took up a corner in a local establishment for many hours - and there we let the stories and the laughter rip.

Some gargoyles are born that way, others choose the harder path to gargoyledom. Adam was never afraid of a challenge. 

Adam and me. In case it's not obvious, we are posing so that we can later
superimpose ourselves sinking down into a vat of red cool-aid. True story. Why yes, that is a Scottish tam
 hat I'm wearing, which so wonderfully matches the necklace Adam made for me out of a
tablecloth and the knob from the Hobart mixer. That's just how we rolled!! 

Up on the mantle right before having two others join him so that they could all sing some praise songs to their adoring fans. (One of the camp administration guys that attended the funeral was a little alarmed to see this photo there...
"Uh, I didn't know you guys went up on the mantle...."
"Uhhhhh umm, yea, we didn't really advertise that to you. Don't worry, it worked out okay.")  

Our friend was a sweet, wise, and hilarious man of faith. He will always be missed. As his sister so appropriately chose as one of the quotes for his slide show, Adam has been, and always shall be, our friend. (Mr. Spock)

Like the rest of us, he wasn't a perfect man - we all have our issues and demons to face in this life - but he was a man who knew grace, and is now staring into the very face of Grace... the very face of Love.

This song is one that Adam taught me, and this song is one that Adam lived:

"So if I stand let me stand on the promise
That you will pull me through
And if I can't, let me fall on the grace
That first brought me to You
And if I sing let me sing for the joy
That has born in me these songs
And if I weep let it be as a man
Who is longing for his home"
(Rich Mullins)

So we weep and we laugh. He'd have joined in the hilarity... and in our grief, he'd have hugged us and coddled us in some hilariously sweet way.

He's our Adam.

Hopefully, tomorrow or Wednesday I will write about new number 21. This week has been most difficult and my Very Little Brain has really only been with Adam and company. 

With love,

HJ