Susan Panko

I came into Steve’s life when he needed assistance and companionship. He was already living in his house in El Paso. We did not go out. We would watch movies or tv, or talk, and listen to music. Because Steve had Parkinson’s disease, we hardly ever ate a meal together. I usually fed him and ate at the kitchen table by myself. He was a very picky eater. Luckily, I was a homebody and preferred staying home.

Steve had broken his shoulder in four places and was pretty much helpless. At first, I would bathe him. Steve fell in September 2014 and broke his hip. He became eligible for Medicare and started receiving home health care including bath services. After he recuperated from his hip surgery, Steve would get up in the mornings and make me breakfast because I worked. Sometimes, I would come home, and he had dinner made.

In the summer of 2016, Steve told me I could get a dog, so I did. I rescued a 3-Year-old Australian shepherd male that his human parents did not want anymore. They left town and left him behind. Steve was able to walk the dog until he broke his second hip in July 2017. He was walking him when the dog saw a cat and pulled on the leash. Steve lost his balance and fell. He was able to get up and came back into the house. He did not know it was broken. He walked for 3 weeks after he broke it and his femur disintegrated.

Steve taught me to make homemade sauce. But I made changes and made it better. He loved Italian food. He would drive me nuts when I was making him lasagna. He would come out into the kitchen and later keep calling my cell phone and tell me to take the pan out of the oven and cut him a piece. The noodles have to cook, and it takes an hour and 15 minutes once it goes into the oven. He loved hot French fries. I would make them homemade so they would be hot and fresh bread coated with butter.

After I started getting social security, I quit my job. Taking care of Steve became a full-time job. Especially after he fell and shattered his pelvis and became bed ridden.

He became a very solitary man and did not want people around or even feel like talking on the phone. The days he would feel like talking were blessed indeed. He would call someone and talk for a while. We spent many hours talking to each other. The stories he would tell me, bike riding, playing racquetball, playing his guitar are just some of them. He would try and joke with me except I did not understand them.

Steve told me that he did not want anything after he passed. He did not think anyone would come anyway. When I told this to his daughter, she said she would come. So, I did this for his daughter Jessie and for me and anyone else, who wanted to honor him and say goodbye to him.

He would tell me someday that he would die. Silly me. I never thought he would. He was a great man and I loved him dearly. I am glad he is no longer suffering and stuck in the bed, but I really miss him. 

Grace Farlow

Every time I would come over, I would go say hi to Steve and chat with him. That is if he was not asleep. He would tell me stories about the shows he was watching,

He would talk about my mom to me. Like when this past year, she was really sick, she started having problems breathing. She has asthma and COPD and she ended up in the hospital for a few days. She was getting pneumonia and he wanted her to sleep. He was glad that I was able to stay here with him when she was in the hospital.

My uncle David took her out to eat a few times and to see the movie 80 for Brady, and to the comic strip for his birthday and hers. Steve said she deserved to go out and get a break. That he would appreciate it when I came over to help him and my mom and to stay with her when she went out with my uncle. Sometimes, his friend Roy, would take her out to eat to give her a break.

He would tell me about when he used to ride his motorcycle and how much he enjoyed it. He would ride with his friends to the pecan farms on the west side and to Las Cruces, Ruidoso, Cloudcroft. They would go somewhere every weekend and be gone all day.

He said he was tired of being in the bed, because he could not get up and do anything. He felt like he was a burden to my mom, but she always came in and took care of him.

He would tell me about his guitars. He had them for a long time and used to play everywhere in New York. He would play by himself until he met Paul Franklin, who played a steel guitar. Then they started playing as a duo. Paul Franklin now plays with Vince Gill.

Steve was like a dad to me. Because he was a good listener and I could talk to him about my problems, the issues I was having, and what was happening in my life.

Steve would tell me about his friend Balo and his tire center. He told me if I had any car problems or with my tires, to go see Balo. Steve and I would listen to music together. I will deeply miss Steve. He was a great guy. 

Karen Triesch

I will forever remember Steven’s humor and his love of crazy loose parakeets. We had over 100 flying around our home and perching on the branches that Steven placed around the rooms. “Birds shouldn’t be caged” he said, as I ducked the droppings. Of course, he loved dogs also and we had many. He was and is a remarkable influence on my son, Walter(the little bastard). Steve gave him the gift of music for which he will forever be grateful. I am sure, knowing Steven, that he taught my son some things I probably shouldn’t know about. Their relationship was beautiful. Steven was a good son and good brother. As I am sure Fred will attest to. He was a conscientious worker, a good eater and a happy racquet ball player.

ROCK ON IN HEAVEN STEVEN. THANK YOU FOR THE MEMORIES. 

Melissa Wood

Steve was a good man and was always kind to us. My daughter would go across the street to see Steve when her dad was deployed, and she was scared and missing him. Steve would also take care of our dog when we were at work. 

Lynn Scheckler Scott

Steve enjoyed bike riding. In fact, Lynn and Steve rode together until I got hurt. We took many road trips together throughout the United States and enjoyed visiting the National Parks. Steve loved animals and was kind to the elderly. He loved to set the cruise control on the car and listen to books on tape. He also loved World War II History.

Steve liked having his sound system on loud. When I would call him, and he answered the phone, I could hear the TV blaring. Of course, I could hear him cussing saying shit or the F word. I would stay silent until he paused the sound. Then we could talk.

Steve hated Mexican food. When Susan told her about the menu for today, she laughed and laughed. One time Steve picked her up from work, I was hungry and asked him to stop at Taco Bell to get a bean burrito. He made me hang the paper bag outside the window with it shut so the smell would not be in the car. Steve was my best friend until the end. I always knew their last phone conversation might have been our last.