We managed to get to Beck Funeral home before the service started, after my confusion landed us at Cook Walden and their empty parking lot was a big clue that we were at the wrong place.
The service for Claude was very well attended, clearly he had a lot of friends and family. I was asked to speak, and you can read my notes below the photos. The first five photos are from my archives, and the remaining few are from the memorial service today. Faye was able to attend, having secured temporary release from rehab, she was looking good, and I’m sure she will be up and around in a couple of week. Claude, I believe you are in a better place now, but you ARE missed.
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Claude wasn’t an out front, in the glittering lights kind of guy. Claude was the behind the scenes rock and foundation. He was always confident that everything would work out right, even when those around him were kind of stressed. As Bobby told me Claude was always kind of above the fray.
Claude was brought up in the Catholic church, and he was an alter boy as a child. When he grew up, married and had children he didn’t push his religious beliefs onto them, trusting instead that they would discover God and faith in their own way and so Claude didn’t talk about his faith. But I believe Claude did have a relationship with God, it was just a private relationship between him and his Maker. Claude believed that everything happens for a reason, trusting that if he did his part, God would do His. Even in his last moments, after the crash, he tried to get up to go check on Faye to try his best to make sure she was all right. Only after they told him she was ok, did he lay back down to let the emergency workers attend to him. He had done his part, and he trusted that God would take care of Faye. God will take care of Faye, and his family.
God took Claude home that day, but he is still with us in the memories we have of him. Claude was a stand-up guy, he could be trusted. He loved his family, and he loved helping children. The toy runs Claude supported will continue, because he did his part, God will do his, and a new worker will rise up to pick up that load.
And finally, I want to ask you a question. Where is your faith? Is your faith in the salvation that Jesus Christ freely offers us, and a life after this with no more pain and no more tears? Mine is, I believe Claude’s was, how about yours?