| Graduation Year | Class of 1966 |
| Date of Passing | Apr 09, 2019 |
| About | Today I post the passing of my fellow classmate, Brother of the Vietnam War and best friend of nearly 60 years. In Memory of Dennis (Denny) Craycraft. When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares. No distance of place or lapse of time can lessen the friendship of those who are thoroughly persuaded of each other's worth. The bond between friends cannot be broken by chance; no interval of time or space can destroy it. Not even death itself can part true friends. Death is but crossing the world, as friends do the seas; they live in one another still. For they must be present, that love and live in that which is omnipresent. In this divine glass, they see face to face, and their converse is free as well as pure. This is the comfort of friends, that though they may be said to die, yet their friendship and society are, in the best sense, ever present, because immortal. True friends are the ones who never leave your heart, even if they leave your life for a while. Even after years apart, you pick up with them right where you left off, and even if they die they're never dead in your heart. We all lose friends.. we lose them in death, to distance, and over time. But even though they may be lost, hope is not. The key is to keep them in your heart, and when your time comes, you can pick up the friendship right where you left off. Even the lost find their way home, when you leave the light on. We all strive to leave something better than ourselves behind when we meet our final day. Denny has done exactly than in the form of a monument. It was never his intention, but the Belding Veterans Memorial Park is a testament to him. His endless devotion from design to construction will stand forever as a permanent reminder of him. Death comes to all, but great achievements build a monument which shall endure until the sun grows cold. Denny has passed away; his name may perish from record and recollection; his history will be a tale that is told, but his monument will last forever. I will not nor will I say goodbye to Denny, for I find comfort in the clear and certain knowledge that we will see each other again, distance in miles was between us for many years except when I returned home for vacation, now only time separates us. They say that Heaven is the time and places you enjoyed in Life, if and I hope it is true, then I will once again walk into his Man Cave, we will greet each other as we always did, sit down and have a cold Bud Light and waste away the hours talking about past and present. Until that time arrives, keep the beer cold my Friend, I will see you again. |
