Remembering a Great Man While Shoveling Snow

I was walking Dakota (our yellow lab) an hour ago after shoveling out my walkway and driveway, and I noticed one particular house was stilled snowed-in. After bringing Dakota home, I grabbed my shovel and headed back over to that home.

Midway through shoveling out the walkway and drive, a frail, 91 year old woman came to the door, wondering who I was (I was wearing a hat and hood).

That woman was a bit troubled and distressed, attempting to explain that she had been trying to call her usual person all morning, but no one had come. As I handed her the newspaper that she had been unable to retrieve from the stairs, she finally realized who I was. Her son, Bobby Boylan, was my best friend in high school (and for many years thereafter).

He is no longer here to do his Mom’s shoveling. He was received into Heaven at 34 years old (25 years ago), after a vicious three-year battle with cancer. I told Mrs. Boylan that I loved her, and asked her to go back inside, so as not to become chilled.

If Bobby was still in this world, he’d have shoveled out half the neighborhood by the time I acted. I often think in terms of how I can be more like Bobby, so that I will more resemble Christ, even as this great man did until his last day in this world.

I wear his watch daily (his wife gave it to me way back then). It doesn’t keep time anymore, but it does remind me of his courage, and his faith. I will never forget the words he spoke to me from his sickbed at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Manhattan those many years ago, as his battles in this world were drawing to a close:

“Don’t feel sorry for me, Barry. We’re both 34 years old. Even if the Lord gives you another fifty or sixty years, it is a blink of an eye. I’ll just be going home to see the Lord a little bit sooner than you.”

As I kept shoveling, I found myself praying, “Lord, Your Word, the Bible, says there is a “great cloud of witnesses surrounding us” (Hebrews 12:1). I don’t know if Bobby can hear this prayer, but if possible, can you tell him that I miss him, and love him. And I love you too Lord. Thank you for the privilege of doing something, however small, for this dear woman today. And thank You most of all that reality is precisely as Bobby understood it to be. Thank You for giving him the wisdom to understand, and the peace that can only come from You, during his last days here.”

“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His godly ones.” Psalm 116:15

“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me (Jesus). In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” John 14:1-4