Goodbye to a Good Guy.

He was one of the most aggravating men I've ever known.
Blunt as a butter knife.
Opinionated beyond belief.
And very, very dear.
I met Bernard Speicher when I crossed the threshold of the old Assembly of God Church in Holyoke. He attended there with his first wife Wilda and his mother-in-law Grandma Brethower. Wilda and Grandma B. played the piano. Bernard ran the church.
Having no contact with my own family, I found in Bernard a father.
He adopted me, too.
Through the years, even as my own father has come into my life again, Bernard has loomed large. He steered me, prodded me and guided me. He comforted me through the death of his beloved little granddaughter, and again when I lost my own son. He chided me for whispering to my young husband during the church service. Once, when I decided to let my hair grow back to it's natural shade, he complimented me on the color of dye I was using. The old rascal knew perfectly well...

And he has always been there for a kiss on the cheek or a hug.
After Wilda's death, Bernard remarried.
To say he and Ilene were a dynamic duo is a mild description. They kept one another active, and irritated the daylights out of one another. And the two of them, like teenaged sweethearts, whispered all through the church service.
He wasn't ashamed to tell everyone how proud he was of his family...even to making public proclamations from the front of the church. I think he cried through every music special Darlow ever presented.
Charlie hit the nail on the head about Bernard when he told someone he felt badly because he hadn't been at the hospital as much as he should and the person said, "well, but you aren't blood" and Charlie said "not far from it."
There isn't much to add to all the eulogies I've seen for Bernard except this one thing: I sure loved the old goat.