Some people live and others LIVE!

It's been said that the important part of your life is how you live your dash, that period of time between when you are born and when you die that shows up on your tombstone as a dash. Today I attended what the newspaper said was a funeral but what those in attendance would call a celebration! There was applause, laughter, singing, music, jokes, imitations, and more. The dash was more of a twisted stretched squiggly line that went all over the place, enjoyed much, endured much, showed passion and love and life.

I first met Joe about 25 years ago when attending Brookside CRC in Kentwood Michigan. The church appears in the local papers periodically as the target for drunk drivers who miss that 36th street ends and there is a church there. Even now two of the windows are plywood and a LARGE rock is out of place for this very reason. In one of his last conversations with the church's pastor he made sure to point out that FOUR rather than two windows should be ordered as they are custom units. "Those will be the best insurance ever because if you HAVE them you'll never NEED them!"

Joe lived mere feet from the church with his wife Deb and their two daughters. They and my wife Brenda and I were volunteer youth leaders at the church and worked together. Here we began to understand some of Joe's passion. Joe did things right but did them full speed. Joe was a builder (among many other things) but besides having great skill using one he also knew what "dropping the hammer" and "hammer lane" meant.

Joe worked with me and the boys at the church to build a very nice trailer for campouts. It had cooking areas, storage for pots/pans, pantries, tent storage, tent pole storage and 110 gallons of fresh water storage all in a 6 x 8 ft package. It was awesome.

Thing about Joe was he was unstoppable in attitude. His smile was contagious if silly at times. List twenty reasons why something would be difficult to do expecting him to back down was a waste of breath. He would respond with his trademark smile, his finger in the air: "So?" How do you counter that? You can't! You watch him prove you wrong.

In 1991 we decided to build the home we now live in and my uncle Frank who was to build it had just retired. Talking to Joe after church one Sunday I asked if he knew anyone he would recommend to build a house. With his very typical "bobble head" motion and a huge smile he raised that index finger and said: "Yeah, me!" So it began. At our very first meeting to discuss the project he began with this: "We are now friends and when this is over we will still be friends, THIS is the number one rule." This was a rule he lived up to in everything he did.

During construction he caught the plumber installing the shower head at standard height and told him to move it up "Like the print says." The plumber looked at Joe (6'7") and said "But we're not building it for you." The reply was another classic Joe: "No but let's act like we ARE building it for me and we'll get along just fine!" Another classic line was when the building inspector asked about the weight rating for our deck. "400 people, each with two beers!" was the reply, delivered with a wide smile. 22 years later and I would still trust that deck with 400 people and their two beers. The only maintenance: Paint.

Here's the thing with Joe, he was thrown more curve balls, knuckle balls, fast balls, and bean balls than any ten men should have dealt with in their lives and this started when he was only 18. His first bean ball (cancer) supposedly gave him 6 months to live. Most people would have quit. Not him. no not even close. It took 40 more years of bean balls and curve balls to finally stop him. 15 years ago he was told by his doctors he had the body of an 85 year old man so by that math he lived to be 100!

At the celebration his best friend (from age 0.2) one of his brothers, both daughters, and his Son (in-law) all spoke about a man. A man who was a husband a father a son a brother and a friend. A friend to anyone who needed him. More important but integrally part of every one of those roles, Joe was a Christian. Joe didn't stand on street corners and hand out tracts or preach. Joe lived life as a Christian should. He donated time a lot of time. He donated money. He helped anyone who needed it. He dealt honestly with others up and down the line. You see having a Ichthys tattoo on your ankle is meaningless if you have to show people that it's there.

Joe I wish I could have spent more time with you. I'm sad that after we moved to this wonderful place that you build us that we rather lost touch. I am so glad that you took that dash and stretched it, bent it, twisted it, smashed it, crunched it and had your way with it! Who wants' just a dash!?

To Deb Stephanie and Amanda, I don't need to tell you than Joe was a great man but I do want to remind you that we KNOW he was and that IS how he will be remembered. You are in my prayers until we meet Joe again in Glory!

Oh and I'm going to steal a line from Joe "We Tanis' do not make mistakes, we make engineering changes!"

- DrF