I attended my Uncle David’s funeral yesterday. He hadn’t been doing well for the past few months, but his passing was still a shock. This kind of funeral leaves you with mixed feelings. I will miss visiting Uncle David on our trips to Idaho to visit my parents, but I have to believe he is happier now than he has been in years. I have often though of my uncle as a modern day Job, only without the happy ending. Years ago he was divorced. Since then his kids haven’t been around much. I don’t think he got to know his grand kids very well. About 5 years ago he and my dad were up motorcycling. I think they used to do that a lot. David fell and hit his head. For most of us the helmet would be enough to ensure that such a fall would result in a headache and a day of riding cut short. David had arthritis ever since getting home from an LDS mission in Alaska. His neck was weak and the result was a break that left him in the hospital in Salt Lake for 9 months and in a wheel chair the rest of his life. That same arthritis lost him his football scholarship to BYU years ago. He graduated from BYU with a degree in ag economics anyway. I don’t know that my grandma Ball ever forgave the cougars for taking away that scholarship.
David was a very strong and active man. He farmed hard and worked hard right up until the accident. I can’t remember who told me, but I heard that he could lift a 300-400 lbs disk (tractor implement) into the back of his pickup with ease. Dad showed me one of his rings. I can put two of my fingers in it. He had strength like few men these day have. Not strength polished and engineered in a gym, but power that comes from long hard work done on the land. I have to imagine that being confined to a wheel chair was a personal hell hard to endure.
My uncle was not always easy to understand but was brilliant in his own right. He was famous for one liners that made you think and for cowboy poetry. When I had to give a speech at high school graduation he wrote a poem. I will be forever grateful and inspired by his thoughtfulness.
About 6 months ago he eldest child and only son was taken by cancer. Dave couldn’t endure a commercial flight, but through the kindness of friends was taken down to California on a personal aircraft so he could see his son a few more times.
He was finally taken by pnemonia.
At the funeral I learned that he had an old typewriter he used to write a few notes with. He told one of the speakers that he was grateful that one of his fingers was straight so that he could type, one letter at a time.
Job has nothing on David. I don’t know anyone who suffered and endured so much for so long. If I remember the bible story turned out well for Job. I think that for uncle David things will turn out well, just not the way that we often think of as ‘well’.
I tell you this not to make you sad, but so that you can know that a man in a wheel chair can stand tall with unwavering dignity in the face of mounting trials and hardship and he do it with unquestioning faith and gratitude.
There aren’t many heros left. The people we ‘admire’ often fail us. No matter how hard my day gets or how hard life seems I will always remember that in the midst of terrible trial and adversity David stayed true to the brand. The world lost a quiet hero last saturday, but with his memory I will always remember to be grateful for what I have and not take for granted the little things that we easily take for granted every day.