One of my few neighbors fell over (aged 50 years) earlier this month. He, to his surprise and the surprise of his friends and family, had a massive heart attack. The folk at Huntsville Hospital were able to keep him alive for a few days, but he passed on none-the-less.
Lynn was a good man.
I’ve never met a more kind hearted and industrious man than Lynn. He worked anywhere between 40 and 70 hours a week for TVA, worked nights and weekends tending roughly 80 head of his cattle on several different fields. As a guess Lynn mowed, raked, and bailed hay for 8 or 10 different folk several times a year. He had 6 or 7 tractors that could be reliably counted on not to start without divine intervention and the application of bailing wire and ether. It never slowed him down in the least. He restored/rebuilt classic muscle cars, reloaded his own ammo, took his daughter hunting religiously.
Lynn weighed 4 lbs and some odd ounces at birth. A veteran of the Gulf War and member of the Army Reserves, Lynn stood about 5’1 or so and clocked in at 115 lbs on a good day. His momma tried to baby him his entire life. If Lynn was mowing a field you could count on his mother either being at the edge of it or in a tractor lending a hand. She can run a tractor (and other farm implements) as well as any man. I suppose that in this part of rural Alabama/Tennessee when your husband dies (as hers did) that you pick up real quick on how to make shit work or you starve. Lynn was her only son and I am told that she is devastated.
Wifey and I went to the funeral and I can reliably report that folk in this neck of the woods don’t spend a whole lot of time in mourning. With the exception of Lynn’s mom and one or two of his friends it seems that every one of the 70 or so attendees had ulterior motives. The Baptist minister mistook the funeral for an opportunity to save wayward souls and spent 95 percent of his time in the limelight trying to bring folk to Jesus. Unwed/newly divorced girls dressed provocatively in sheer strips of black dresses that highlighted their breasts and tattoos while drawing attention away from the missing teeth and extra pounds. All the aunts, uncles and distant relatives leveraged the occasion to convene a family reunion that, considering the laughing, joking, and introductions, they clearly have not enjoyed in decades. Life goes on uninterrupted.
Meanwhile a good and simple man has passed beyond this life and I can’t help but think that heaven is better for having received him.