Dear Editor,
How do you measure the worth of another human being ?
This past year the bell has tolled for several friends,we feel their loss & are saddened by their passing, each of them touched me in a special way, However I want to tell you about my neighbour Keith Elliot, he was kind, generous & talented, in in spite of the debilitating condition of Parkinsons’s Disease, he carreid on without complaint!
He used his gifts and talents fixing things as a contractor and friend for many in our neigborhood. He went about his days being a great son, devoted husband, wonderful father, terrrific grandfather and amazing friend to the end. To me he was a life saver on many ocassions , as a widow there were many times that he came to my rescue , whether fixing my lattice fence, checking my alarm system, installing a door bell or the other various little jobs around my house that needed doing. “No” was not in his vocabulary.
This past year was very difficult for him as he was diagnosed with cancer…Many of us prayed for his recovery, but it was not to be. When his wife called to tell me he had passed away, she told me about his concern for me and a facer board above my kitchen window that was loose and hanging down;every time they passed by, he would remark that it needed to be fixed.
His funeral was truly a “Celebration of Life” when I returned home after the service, I heard a strange scraping noise in my kitchen, as I looked out I saw a ladder being hoisted, then the lower part of a man leaning against the window. I went outside to see what was going on, I found Keith’s good freind Wayne Waddell nailing up the board. Then he told me of his last visit at the hospital when Keith asked him to fix it for me; imagine if you can the pain, as he lay dying; his thoughts were about helping a friend.
I was and am humbled by this incredible, selfless act of kindness and know, “angels walk among us.” “Rest in Peace dear friend” and to quote my husband Austin, when he was touched by someones kindness, he would say, “You are a gentleman and a scholar.” Peace & happiness.
Joyce Fraser, Princeton, B.C.
