Here is Patsy Bronner on my nephew, Roger Goetsch, who passed away a week ago Sunday in a farm accident. I'll post a link to her column when it gets published
A Kinship With Roger
Making hay, spraying crops, working at the county fair,
hosting a tour group of students from
University of
Florida , remembering our wedding
anniversary: into an already busy
week comes the funeral of a little boy. I didn’t interact with this little boy
every day or every week or on a regular basis at all, but he was a neighbor and
the son of my first cousin. He died
in a farm accident on a warm sunny Sunday.
Roger was a farm boy. He played in the creek that ran past his
house. He watched the fish that
swam in the cow tank and saw tadpoles wiggle their tails in the water. He played in the hay and straw
bales. He helped his mother in the
garden and the greenhouse. He rode
with his dad in the tractor. Roger
liked to sing. He liked to play
hide and seek with his siblings and cousins.
I played where Roger played, on my uncle’s farm, on the
hills and in the creek. I helped
bale hay there, learning to navigate the steep slopes on an open tractor without
power steering. My sisters, my
cousins and I rode on top of the loads of square bales. We chased pigs through the woods, over
tree roots and along the muddy paths they made across the pasture. We helped our dad and his brother corral
cattle and load trucks bound for market. We traipsed up the snow clad terrain together on cold winter days for the
mere joy of sliding back down.
I feel a special kinship to this little boy. Though I kept all the commitments I’d
made and accomplished the tasks that needed to be done, my thoughts constantly
returned to him and his family. The
clergy tried to comfort the crowd that gathered to mourn. Each of us struggled to reason why this
tragedy occurred. We may never find
an answer to that question. No
words that I can say or write will alleviate the grief that many of us feel, but
certainly the memory of his bright smile and happy demeanor will live on in our
hearts.
By Patsy Bronner
Update: Here's the link.
