Uncle Gary was a wonderful uncle. He got me a summer job at a deaf camp one summer and checked on my wife and I regularly because of the impending arrival of my first child. I have known him all my life and he was always always always  the same, he was interested and listened and made it clear that he liked and loved me throughout my life and when he learned that I was gay and had married a man, he wanted to meet my husband. For me, that was true love.  Uncle Gary is a treasure to me and I am glad that we don’t really die. This life is tough and confusing but Uncle Gary helped to make mine sparkle with his genuine interest, smile, and that laugh!

This is Gary Linebaugh’s family at a distance. Always separated by miles but never out of our hearts.

I am writing this Sunday afternoon at 5PM Central Standard Time, and I can just tell you that our hearts are trembling with sadness but seasoned with shouts of victory when Julie just told us that Gary had crossed the finish line.

We bring family and friends love and deepest respect when we share grief with you, but are overwhelmed with floods of memories that bring smiles and out right laughter when we remember Gary and fun times we had together to say nothing about the precious memorabilia that hang at the forefront of our hearts.

People take that journey into the great beyond but their friendship, prayers, love and positive influence they leave behind cannot be destroyed.

He has crossed the finish line, but his influence is immortal.

1) He is gone but not forgotten. Even God keeps a Book of Remembrance, and we have such a book in our minds and heart.

2) He is gone but not forsaken. The Psalmist had this in writing Psalms 23:4 when he penned these words. “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I WILL FEAR NO EVIL FOR THOU ART WITH ME.”

3) He is gone but not forever. Paul reminded us of this unfailing promise in I Thessalonians 4:17. Listen carefully to his words. “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once declared, “so when a great man dies,

For years beyond our ken,

The light he leaves behind him lies

Upon the paths of men.”

These words came to my mind as I walk down memory lane with Gary. “His life was gentle and the elements so mixed in him that Nature might stand up and say to all the world: “This was a man!”

Gary you were and are the man. Your toils and tears are gone forever. Rest in peace.

See you in the morning.

Amen.