A Fond Farewell
We had Eric's Memorial/Celebration of Life/Happy Hour last night. It was at the Rock Bottom that I frequent and I'm sure he would have approved of the plan.
They closed off the upstairs area for us (and it got very, very crowded as Eric was a very, very popular guy) and there was an open bar and munchies for the crowd. They'd put together a picture board and also a slide show. The picture board put me in tears right away and I could get through about 5 pictures at a time before I started losing it.
I did manage to see all of the pictures eventually. I had no idea how much of a hunter he was. There were pictures with dead animals throughout. Also, lots of pictures of his family while they were growing up and it was funny seeing Eric with an 80s 'stache and feathered hair. I've only known him for 4 years so I was just familiar with how he looked in his 40s. His 20s and 30s were something to see.
My friend Dianne had emailed me and said it just seemed surreal. I think that was exactly the right word. With everyone telling stories and meeting people they'd heard stories about, it was easy to picture Eric there with us and it seemed completely wrong that he wasn't.
Annette and his family seemed to do as well as they could. It was tough. However, there were lots of hugs and laughs along with the tears and we even did a coordinated Team Drink with the Des Moines Parrot Head Club. A lot of them had gotten to know Eric from Key West.
It's still very wrong that he left us this early but it was good to celebrate what he did and who he was before he left.
They closed off the upstairs area for us (and it got very, very crowded as Eric was a very, very popular guy) and there was an open bar and munchies for the crowd. They'd put together a picture board and also a slide show. The picture board put me in tears right away and I could get through about 5 pictures at a time before I started losing it.
I did manage to see all of the pictures eventually. I had no idea how much of a hunter he was. There were pictures with dead animals throughout. Also, lots of pictures of his family while they were growing up and it was funny seeing Eric with an 80s 'stache and feathered hair. I've only known him for 4 years so I was just familiar with how he looked in his 40s. His 20s and 30s were something to see.
My friend Dianne had emailed me and said it just seemed surreal. I think that was exactly the right word. With everyone telling stories and meeting people they'd heard stories about, it was easy to picture Eric there with us and it seemed completely wrong that he wasn't.
Annette and his family seemed to do as well as they could. It was tough. However, there were lots of hugs and laughs along with the tears and we even did a coordinated Team Drink with the Des Moines Parrot Head Club. A lot of them had gotten to know Eric from Key West.
It's still very wrong that he left us this early but it was good to celebrate what he did and who he was before he left.
