Hello All,

Elliott's wife here. Yes, sometimes even I lurk! The Memorial service was mostly attended by family. About 17 or so of us total. Pastor Brent Parker of Destiny FourSquare Church led the service. He was Al's pastor as well as neighbor and friend. Elliott had a few words to say about Al and everyone here at FAOL who helped in making the bench a reality, and then some of the family members shared stories about Al. Pastor Brent (an extremely talented singer and guitarist) led us in Amazing Grace, he read a couple of scripture passages, and then we gathered in a circle holding hands around the bench and had a final prayer to dedicate the bench. Very nice.

The clouds had been rolling in for a couple of hours beforehand and the temperature dropping, but the rain held off. I had to smile about half way through because there was a solitary rumble of thunder. I didn't know Al on a personal basis and in fact had only met him a few of times at Scheels (when I was wandering around dazedly trying to find something to give Elliott for his birthday, anniversary, Christmas, etc. -- I learned quickly, when in doubt or very confused, FIND AL!), but I feel I know Al and what kind of a man he was through Elliott and all the stories that have been shared about him since his death. Anyway, that one solitary rumble of thunder made me smile because I couldn't help but think that that was Al grumbling about all the fuss that was being made.

Elliott is in California on business for a couple of days, but I'll make sure he knows you're expecting to hear from him when he gets back.

Betty, he's on vacation as soon as he returns so I'll add the barbed wire cleaning to the "honey-do" list I've started for him! I'm looking forward to meeting you. Hopefully you'll have a better trip this year. We've had rain for the last 3 or 4 days. Let's hope it continues so these water levels rise.

Leah