A Tribute to a Great Man

Life is such a fragile thing that we tend to take for granted as we run around living our busy little lives worrying and stressing over the mundane instead of enjoying what really matters, relationships with real people, relationships with our family and friends.  Often it isn't until tragedy strikes that we stop, take a breath, come up for air and remember how blessed we are to be surrounded by the ones we love.  We recently lost a good one, Dan Pickens.  Many who read this will not even have a memory to go with the name, it will be just another name without a face to reference, but for a handful of people it is the name of a wonderful human being that touched many lives.  He is a great man who will be missed dearly ~ husband, father, brother, grandparent, great grandparent, friend.  

The family decided to have celebration of life for Dan so a date was picked, the word was spread and one by one people confirmed that they would be getting together in Tenino.  Some family that hadn't seen one another for over 30 years were reunited!  Our little corner of the world in Tenino turned into a regular Best Western for a few days as people were playing musical beds and attempting to comfortably accommodate all the family that flew in to celebrate Dan.  It was so much fun to relax, catch up, and visit with cousins, aunts, great uncles that we hadn't seen in years, some we even met for the first time.  Kids were running around everywhere getting acquainted, we broke bread and of course had to take a ridiculous amount of pictures to commemorate this special time we had together.  Dan was well loved by many.  Thank you for bringing us all together again, we love and will miss you dearly Dan :-)   

Please, if you knew Dan and have a fun memory to share with his family and friends comment below so we can send this to his family as a blessing as we remember him.