I remeber this time, it was a funnier Jerry moment AND it made me realize something as I was thinking about it a few minutes ago.

I would say I was either a Sophomore or a Junior in college and JUST started getting into lifting. Now I wasn't the biggest kid around nor was I the strongest, BUT I did think I was the cock of the walk. Well one day Jerry and I were doing yard work and he was in the process of redoing the walk way stairs that we had in the backyard. These stairs lead down the hill which we have in the middle of the yard. Well there was this HUGE post that was part of the railing. Well Jerry goes, hey Muscles, go lift that pole out of the ground for me. Well I tried and I tried and I just couldn't get it to move. Well here comes Jerry and BOOM out comes the pole, man did I feel like whimp then.

But right now, this showed me how strong Jerry truly was. I am not talking about physical strength but the inner strength that he had to just be Jerry. He had to be strong for himself, my mother and his kids, and not ONCE did Jerry ever show weakness. He showed me what it was to be a man, and most importantly he showed me how to always be strong.

I miss Jerry everyday BUT I do know that he is in a better place right now smiling down at me telling me good job!!

Love you Jerry 

On The Death Of The Beloved

— John O’Donohue

Though we need to weep your loss,
You dwell in that safe place in our hearts,
Where no storm or night or pain can reach you.

Your love was like the dawn
Brightening over our lives
Awakening beneath the dark
A further adventure of colour.

The sound of your voice
Found for us
A new music
That brightened everything.

Whatever you enfolded in your gaze
Quickened in the joy of its being;
You placed smiles like flowers
On the altar of the heart.
Your mind always sparkled
With wonder at things.

Though your days here were brief,
Your spirit was live, awake, complete.

We look towards each other no longer
From the old distance of our names;
Now you dwell inside the rhythm of breath,
As close to us as we are to ourselves.

Though we cannot see you with outward eyes,
We know our soul’s gaze is upon your face,
Smiling back at us from within everything
To which we bring our best refinement.

Let us not look for you only in memory,
Where we would grow lonely without you.
You would want us to find you in presence,
Beside us when beauty brightens,
When kindness glows
And music echoes eternal tones.

When orchids brighten the earth,
Darkest winter has turned to spring;
May this dark grief flower with hope
In every heart that loves you.

May you continue to inspire us:

To enter each day with a generous heart.
To serve the call of courage and love
Until we see your beautiful face again
In that land where there is no more separation,
Where all tears will be wiped from our mind,
And where we will never lose you again.
 

    In 1971, DuQuoin had an authoritarian thug for a high school Principle. His claim to fame and weapon of terror was his Dress Code. Girls couldn't even wear pants to keep warm on freezing days. Then the hotter girls would be called in to his office to have their upper thighs personally tapemeasured to check for compliance with "the code". I looked and dressed normal, but he and the basketball coach were my first of many authoritarian goons, that I just couldn't put up with. So I decided to take his dress code from him. I wasn't as good at case law at age 17, as I later got. But Jerry knew the people involved and the sick situation. So he did the research, pro-bono, for the good of DuQuoin, and handed me the perfect case law. It was a legal slam dunk.       I guess I've never found a way to tell him how much that meant to me, and indeed DuQuoin in general. So now the best I can do is relate this history, and give to his local Humane Society. God bless you, Jerry Finney.         

One of my favorite memories of Jerry was when he  was a senior at SIU.  My friends and I had moved to two apartments on the top floor of a building.  People had been dropping by all evening helping us to paint and move things.  All of a sudden we heard a knock at the door on the balcony.  Jerry and another friend named Steve Eckert were standing out there.  They had not been able to figure out how to get to the apartment (the door was in the back next to another apartment door) so they had climbed up the pillars supporting the balcony.  When we answered the door Jerry looked at us and said "Isn't there an easier way to get into this apartment."