I was with Chris almost up to the end. I remember visiting him one day at a skilled nursing facility after a critical surgery that did not go well. I knew it would not be long, and I was not sure what to do or to say. I felt very awkward. When it came time to leave, I said, "Yo, good buddy. You do what you have to do."
About a week later his wife, Carol, called and said he had passed away.
I lived up the street from Chris from the third grade through the sixth. We did lots of guy things together, some of them quite stupid. But I always liked him through high school and when we went separate ways after graduation.
We traveled different paths. His took him into some dark places from which he emerged quite strong and with much dignity. He devoted his life and his love to a step-family, who returned his love in spades. He was the father that they had lost much earlier in their lives.
His life took its most severe turn for the worse when he had a stroke while driving his car. He was never the same from that point over the ten years or so that he had remaining.
His gift to me was the opportunity to be a real friend to one of my friends truly in need. I did the best I could to give him that friendship up to the end.
James A. (Jim) Stehr
I was with Chris almost up to the end. I remember visiting him one day at a skilled nursing facility after a critical surgery that did not go well. I knew it would not be long, and I was not sure what to do or to say. I felt very awkward. When it came time to leave, I said, "Yo, good buddy. You do what you have to do."
About a week later his wife, Carol, called and said he had passed away.
I lived up the street from Chris from the third grade through the sixth. We did lots of guy things together, some of them quite stupid. But I always liked him through high school and when we went separate ways after graduation.
We traveled different paths. His took him into some dark places from which he emerged quite strong and with much dignity. He devoted his life and his love to a step-family, who returned his love in spades. He was the father that they had lost much earlier in their lives.
His life took its most severe turn for the worse when he had a stroke while driving his car. He was never the same from that point over the ten years or so that he had remaining.
His gift to me was the opportunity to be a real friend to one of my friends truly in need. I did the best I could to give him that friendship up to the end.
I'll never forget him.
Jim