Eugene Gauger
You are a rare person who is truly pure of heart, always providing genuine praise and serving others. You selflessly bring beauty and goodness to the world with inexhaustible generosity. It’s a consistent outpouring of compliments verbally or by letter, bringing floral/garden arrangements to parties and events, and listening to other people’s stories fully present.
You make a significant positive difference in the world by the seemingly simple life you live of being kind to others and consistently being a decent human being.
You always put others first and gave far more than you ever took.
Your wonderful gentle soul always calms and comforts others when they need someone to listen and be there.
So many times I hear people refer to you as a gentleman, a term I don’t hear much any more and wish that I did.
Your humility is the gold standard, never talking about yourself in a self-promotional way. If anything, you downplay your accomplishments.
You wrote me this in a letter when I was about to start college. “DeVeaux, it is difficult for me to comprehend that your are entering university. I would love to offer you 738 items of wisdom, but if there are 738 ‘wisdoms’ available, you will discover them in your own way, in your own time—just as I did in stumbling on to campus 333 years ago. I am enormously proud of you and wish for you a grand experience—many grand experiences.”
That one bit of wisdom is something I’ve always carried with me as it applies to all aspects of life.
In a sermon you gave years ago, you said, “Life is life, time is time. Time does not indulge me nor accommodate me. Time will not personalize my minutes and my years. It is I who somehow must fit into Time. Time is eternal, greater and older and wiser than I.”
So eloquently and profoundly puts something abstract into perspective.
I confess that I didn’t fully appreciate you when I was younger. Because of wisdom gained with age and experience, I know what a unique and wonderful individual you are. I better understand myself and your subtle influence and guidance on me and am appreciative for what you gave to me. I see your characteristics in my children and am thankful you live on in them.
Thank you for your unconditional love and support. Thanks for your wisdom and perspective when I question myself and what my life’s purpose is. And the kind and gentle words when I stumbled, which was all too often.
I aspire each day to express more of the parts of you in me by serving others with my gifts, talents and experiences. I’ll likely fall short, but you’d tell me to be who you are, as that’s all you possibly can be, and that’s the gift you bring to the world.