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.