My Beautifully Messy World

Missing You

     Okay so just to start off, I don't know that anyone will really care about this but oh well.
     When I first met my uncle Lance less than a year ago, he was very kind and always very helpful. He wanted to see my dad and myself succeed in all of our endeavors, weather it be Masonry (they are both Freemasons), or Rainbow Girls (a Masonic youth organization). He was a strong-willed man, strong in his religious beliefs and strong in his Masonic duties. Always willing to help someone in need, and cheerful wherever he went. He did have some health issues though, and was afraid of going to the doctor out of fear of what results would show. He had just gotten a new girlfriend, Tammy, and they were planning to move in together soon. As Worshipful Master of the Masonic lodge, he brought in one mason, my other uncle Tommy.
     He always came to my Rainbow meetings and gave us opportunities to help out within our community, putting points for us towards Rainbow. He would always tell us thank you and that he appreciated our help.
     The second to last time I saw Lance was on the side of the highway. A man from our town and his daughter were on a motorcycle when the battery went dead and they needed a jump. My mom and I went to help them get home, Lance once again telling us how appreciative he was.
     Lance was in all entirety a great man, and now, I am sorrowful to say, that he passed away this morning in his sleep. He was so young, and had many plans for his future.
     However, I believe that he is in a much better place now than he would be if his health kept declining and he was no longer able to function on his own. Although he missed opportunities in his lifetime here, he can see us, and he knows that we are advancing. He knows that we miss him dearly, I hope, and that we ever keep in mind his actions through our own. His civility, his knowledge, and his integrity.
     I hope that he can see everything he's ever wanted now, and that someday, he'll be here and have those opportunities again. Now, symbolically, he will have a broken column placed in the left-hand corners of his pictures in the lodge. This is custom for all Masons who have passed honorably to the Grand Lodge above, that they may rest peacefully.
     I whole-heartedly love Lance and wish that he could have had more time with us here, but it was his time to go and I'd rather him be somewhere special than nowhere at all.
   
Sincerely,
Rose