It's a Bad Day

In our Saturday morning free store conversation we talked about our good friend Dave Reynolds that just passed away on Friday, April 1.  Sheila and Dave have been instrumental in the operation of the free store since we moved into the Area 15 warehouse almost two years ago.  Before he became too ill to staff the store on a regular basis Dave used to manage the almost free section of the store where we sold some furniture and electronic items.  Dave was a natural salesman and enjoyed haggling over prices with our customers although he would rarely lower a price once he set it much to the frustration of our friends.  He thought that in general our prices "were too damn low."

We started our discussion with the question about what things can help us to deal with the grief we feel when we lose someone that we care about.  George perfectly expressed how we were all feeling when he said, "It's a bad day."  So we acknowledged our collective sadness and began to talk about where we found strength to face our friend's death.  Rick said that he was encouraged to think that Dave had gone  to a better place and that his struggle was over.  We all agreed that Dave had really struggled the last months of his life with end stage lung disease that had him in the hospital seven times since January.  Someone else mentioned how profound and yet unfathomable hope can be when staring into the lifeless face of a once living person.  We talked a bit about how life would seem so meaningless if death really was the ultimate end of existence.

Our friend Donald talked about meeting Dave when he first started coming to the free store and Dave told him to just come and hang out because he would meet people that cared about him.  Donald said that he likes to come to the free store "cos white folks are nice to me and it don't matter if you're black or white."  He also said that "God is good" and we should keep our faith and not give up.  We thanked Donald for his comments and encouraged him to keep his remarks short and give others a chance to speak (we've learned that Donald can be quite a preacher when he gets cranked up).

At this point our friend Tony told us that he thought it was good to be with family and close friends at a time when someone dies.  Meanwhile our friend Robert kept wandering in and out of the room while we were having the discussion.  Tony said it made him feel better to be with people that cared about him.  And our friend Rick said later that it made a big difference when you had people to support you when you had to go through something like this.

We laughed a bit when one of our friends reminded us that Dave was the free store "junkyard dog" and that he had managed to ruffle a few feathers along the way.  There were many days that feathers would have to be smoothed after one of our friends would encounter the tougher side of Big Dave.  He also introduced us to the "oyster shooter" at our staff meetings at Boardwalk Billys which now serves as something of an initiation rite for those friends that move into the inner circle.  We all smiled knowing that it was all part of who Dave was and ultimately part of the man that we loved and will miss.