"Love ya, mean it" Randy Peek
by Susan Palmes-Dennis
This is an original quote from the “Life Lessons and Funny Sayings of Randy Peek” distributed during his funeral services in one cold morning in January 2016 at Rockingham, North Carolina.
The “Life Lessons” is contained in two pages of blue paper and when folded it becomes a four page compilation of advices as heard by his children and those close to him, lessons that he learned as he dealt with life.
It is an original gathering of sayings divided into four portions: “Him on Living Life, Him on Chasing girls, Him on working, Him on family.
I met Randy six years ago when Ronnie and me went to Myrtle Beach and he was doing repairs on the beach house of Dean and Ann Dennis.
The moment we met was not a “getting to know you”, it was as if we have met in our lifetime already.
Something about his personality made me feel welcome to the family and beyond that.
I hung around with Randy while he continued on his work. He talked about Ronnie and of course his escapades with “girls.” To my mind it could have been escapades as told to him by some friends.
Sincerity can be felt in the conversation of how he “kept Ronnie always on the loop” and that’s how I felt that time.
Since then during family gatherings in September and December we bumped into each other and the smile was there as he inquired how Ronnie was doing.
Actually Randy's funeral service was a story of his life as told by cousins, children and friends including Reverend Wesley Williams, who is a family friend.
Randy was diagnosed with colon cancer in September last year a few days after the Guinn get together and the family was devastated after hearing the news.
My husband Ronnie would be checking on the latest on Randy’s condition from his brothers Bill, Keith and Dean and every talk ends with Ron's sad face and I knew then it was not a good indication. I never asked about it, I observed.
Talking about his cancer Randy said “Ain’t going to do nobody no good for me to be a sappy pussy about it all.” And true enough he lived until his last breath as he refused further treatment.
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| Randy enjoyed life to the fullest |
Randy stayed for about a month at the hospital.
He was heard telling a nurse who brought a bucket with toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner and soap “well that looks like about four hunned (hundred) dollars’ worth of stuff.”
When asked about his colonoscopy he said that he “woke up feeling so good.” “I never knew I’d feel so good after having something stuck up my ass. No wonder there are so many queers in this world.”
He used his condition to crack jokes to forget about the pain and what the future had in store for him. Randy is Ronnie's cousin (according to Ronnie but I think otherwise).
Randy is the son of Ronnie’s first cousin Catherine Causey Peek who is the first cousin of Ronnie’s mother -their mothers being sisters (whatever!). Under Philippine Law Randy would be Ronnie’s nephew.
Randy would lavish me with tales and stories about him and the Dennis boys. He belongs to them and they belong to him that when he breathed his last the Dennis boys at least for Ronnie felt the emptiness.
While at the hospital he was quoted as telling Ronnie why his blood pressure was coming down. “It’s coming down because you are moving away from me.”
Or when he was asked;”Dad how ya feeling?” he said “I am a low rotation (talking about the nurses. Looking forward for the hotties to come back.”
When we saw him at Carter Funeral Home Colonial Chapel at Rockingham, North Carolina my first experience alone with the dead happened with Randy.
Tell you this; Ronnie and I arrived first at his funeral service as we drove for two hours from Cornelius. The funeral parlor staff asked the name of the dead person we were visiting.
Upon being told he said ” he is there” pointing to a room. About this time Ronnie, true to his being a bladder leaker, told me “I met you there while I used the rest room.”
So I went to the room as directed. I got inside a room with chairs, an elevated center with the US Flag with what appears to be a chapel. A casket at the center alone by itself.
The room was deserted except for Randy Lee inside his casket I assumed. I walked towards it by mustering all the courage and strength of the descendants of the great Jose Rizal (national hero of the Filipnos who was never scared of the Spaniards.). Armed with that lofty thought, I marched towards the casket.
He was sleeping like a baby with his Western style clothing including a vest. He looked as if he was prepared to go to a party and it sort of was because those who visited were told about how Randy celebrated life.
I thought he winked at me. I don’t know but I felt all the hairs at my back played with me and the Catholic in me started reciting marathon prayers for the dead. I was perspiring.
I don’t know how many minutes I was alone with the dead until I heard Ronnie's voice and what sounded like Keith's voice. What is sure is that I finished my rosary so fast that I probably gave a hard time to the saints to keep pace with the mysteries and the litany.
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| Me with Randy at Rockingham, North Carolina |
It took some time for Ronnie and his brother Keith to join me at that room.
Randy served in the US army in Iraq and that made him patriotic. But he was doing carpentry all his life.
He was very good in carpentry and truth be told that he was sought after carpenter here and there.
His carpentry was a work of art as he gave his all to become the best in his work. I learned that he had been a member of the Church of Christ.
It's been months since he passed away but to his loved ones and to me, Randy Peek will live on, his life lessons to endure beyond the grave.
(Susan Palmes-Dennis is a veteran journalist from Cagayan de Oro City, Misamis Oriental, Northern Mindanao in the Philippines who worked as a nanny and is now employed as a sub-teacher and a part-time teacher assistant in one of the school systems in the Carolinas.
Read her blogs on susanpalmesstraightfrom the Carolinas.com and at http://www.blogher.com/myprofile/spdennis54. These and other articles also appear at http://www.sunstar.com.ph/author/2582/susan-palmes-dennis.
You can also connect with her through her email susanap.dennis@yahoo.com as well as her Pinterest account at http://www.pinterest.com/pin/41025046580074350/) and https://www.facebook.com/pages/Straight-from-the-Carolinas-/494156950678063)
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