Funeral for a Friend

Salvatore attended his first funeral yesterday.  He was wonderfully behaved.  I carried him with me to say our final good-byes to the open casket.  As if he knew to be quiet and caring, he held tightly to me and stroked my cheek as I cried.  The funeral was for one of my dad's closest friends, Allan Gantt. He and his lovely wife Diane were our first friends when we moved to Fullerton in 1985.  They owned the Century 21 Accent and Superstars Realty that my dad worked for for over 20 years!  We have many fond memories and funny stories about this great couple.  Baseball was another bond my dad shared with them.  We often shared our Angels season tickets with his Dodgers season tickets.  Salvatore's only Dodgers game was in Allan's seat.  For over 15 years, they would travel to see the Angels and Dodgers in Spring Training.  One story that my dad shared at his service was most memorable and describes Allan perfectly.  One night, after the baseball games, they all went bowling. Allan was very good.  My dad said that Allan had entered himself into a "Lights Out" bowling competition where they lined up each bowler and gave them one chance to knock down as many pins as possible. The catch was that they turned all of the lights off, except for the end where the pins stood.  Slowly, bowlers with low scores were eliminated, leaving Allan the victorious winner.  My dad said afterwards that he asked Allan how he pulled off such an amazing feat.  Allan's reply?  " I am a spot bowler. I choose and focused on one spot that I could still see and aimed for that spot."  That easily describes how he was in life...always able to see a bright spot when all else was dark.  He treated his family, friends, and business associates this way.  We all knew how he felt about us.  We all knew he had no enemies and no bad feelings for anyone.  We will all miss him very much.