Proverbs 17:17
A friend loveth at all times,
and a brother is born for adversity.
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Alan was a multimillionaire.
He lived modestly in a small home
in a nice, older neighborhood.
He had a couple of cars, a Cadillac and a Lexus.
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His friend Marty,
pictured next to the Lexus,
in Alan’s driveway,
was commissioned by Alan,
to paint flames on the car.
It says, “On fire for the Lord.”
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Recently my husband officiated for
Alan’s Celebration service.
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He was 67 years old.
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The truly beautiful thing about Alan
was the fact that he had real friends.
You might say, “doesn’t everybody have friends?”
How many have had the same group of close knit friends
for 50 or more years?
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Someone said there were
seven to nine such friends
at the celebration.
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Marty:
The self-proclaimed latecomer
of the gang
was a friend of 50 years,
and the painter of the Lexus.
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It wasn’t a big crowd that gathered for his funeral,
as far as numbers go-
– Alan’s sister and her husband,
their daughter, grandaughter and some neices;
but it was tremendous as far as the richness of those friends.
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Dwayne:
Dwayne said he doesn’t remember when there wasn’t an Alan.
Their parents were friends,
and they grew up together and became friends for life.
Dwayne said,
Alan could be “rough, tough, and gruff” toward him,
and then say to him unexpectedly,
“I love you man.”
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Roger:
Roger knew him since kindergarten.
He said that he first met Alan
when he moved into the neighborhood,
and lived around the bend.
One day Alan was riding his bike
and Roger wondered who the new kid was.
“We were best friends ever since,” he exclaimed.
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Gary:
Gary drove from Montana to be at Alan’s funeral.
He said, “I had to come!”
He knew Alan since he was eight years old.
He shared how, as he put it,
Alan had to “ruin it” and “leave first!”
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The gang had been together since childhood,
but then came Viet Nam, and they were separated.
Eventually, however, they all came back home.
What a legacy to have unwavering friends such as these!
But beside the longtime friends who came,
there were also friends he had known for a lesser time.
That is not to say that Alan’s gang of friends
didn’t have their ups and downs,
Alan could be “prickly,” but it was repeatedly
said, “He had a heart of gold.”
The gang remains close,
perhaps even closer now since Alan is gone.
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LIFETIME FRIENDS
1. You never have to worry about
telling them your life story-
they were there!
2. They saw you through your most awkward phases
and stuck with you anyway.
3. You have no shame around each other!
4. Quirks and idiosyncrasies which might bother others,
seem normal to you.
5. Some of life’s most important lessons
you learned from each other.
6. You feel totally comfortable in each others’ homes
because that’s where you spent the majority of your childhood.
7. You’re basically a part of each others’ families –
their parents are essentially your parents.
8. You’ve seen each other through struggles
that newer friends wouldn’t even know about.
9. You’ve also conducted
some idiotic experiments together,
and as a result,
you’ve gotten into all sorts of trouble together.
10. Basically,
you figured out all the icky growing-up stuff together –
and that helps to create an unbreakable bond.
11. When they move away,
it just gives you an excuse to visit wherever they are.
12. You were friends in a world without Netflix
so you were really good at finding other ways
to entertain yourselves.
13. You were friends long before social media was the thing,
so you’re experts at keeping in touch.
14. You can go ages without talking,
but when important stuff happens,
they’re the ones you want to be around.
15. When you forget details of your past adventures,
they fill in the blanks.
16. You now know what a true lasting friendship means,
because when you first met you were just kids.
17. There’s nothing that makes you laugh harder
than reminiscing about the good times!
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FROM MY HEART TO YOU 