Eulogy for Son :: Eulogies Eulogy

Eulogy for Son Today, the most difficult day in my family’s life, we gather to say farewell to our son, brother, fiancà © and friend.   To those of you here and elsewhere who know Dylan you already are aware of the type of person he was and these words you will hear are already in your memory.   To those who were not as fortunate, these words will give you a sense of the type of man he was and as an ideal for which we should strive.  My son has been often described as a gentle soul.   He was pure of heart and had great sensitivity for the world around him.   He had a way with people that made them feel comfortable around him and infected others to gravitate toward him.   Dylan exuded kindness and pulled generosity and altruism out from everyone he touched.   He was everyone's best friend.   To say Dylan was polite is an understatement.   Since his early years, he showed respect and caring for all around him.   Even through the tormentous experiences of his hospital stays and chemotherapy treatment he never once failed to thank a nurse, aide, transport worker or anyone else as they gave him a meal, assisted him or performed another painful procedure.  He also was a man of compassion.   I can remember when he was six years old in Seattle.   He was running in a cross country race with his friend Tommy when the pack of runners disappeared behind bushes.   He was at that time running near the lead.   As we watched a few minutes later, all the runners reappeared and completed the race.   No Dylan nor Tommy in sight.   Finally, after a few desperate minutes Dylan and Tommy reappeared.   When asked what happened Dylan said that he and Tommy had stopped to help some frogs get out of the way of the runners.  His compassion extended to his adulthood.   He o ften spoke that while he wished to develop his career as a rowing coach and teacher of English and History he wanted to live a simple life where he could exert influence on those less fortunate that he.   Many times he said a perfect job would be where he could teach and coach crew in an inner city area and develop rowing programs with inner city kids that would rival the Eastern prep schools.  When he was told he was dying and had but a few days to live he told me he was not concerned about dying but was worried about his family and Patti.