Eulogy
Thomas N. Silvey
2.25.2015
Everyday for the last week I've been waking up hoping the news of your death was just a bad nightmare but then I awake and realized it not a bad dream but that you are here - lying next to me. However, Molly, I notice is still sitting on the front porch awaiting your truck to drive down the driveway.
So I'm here now to celebrate your life along with your wife Carolyn and those here today that cared for you including your “band of brothers” that were such a part of your life growing up.
So Fred
Do you remember when mom would take us to Cliffy Creek and the area called the “Pepper Box” to catch crawfish and swim around the waterfalls with the Browder's, Bilbrey’s and the Wilsons. Do you remember when Buzzy Browder almost drowned there? Do you remember the trips we took to Cades Cove where we hiked, camped, rode horses with the Scott Shrout and Danny Wright s? Do you remember When we played little league baseball on the Methodist team under coach Galyon where Dwight Bass could actually throw a curve ball and Guy Daniels could actually hit the ball run over the Flour mill outfield fence while mom keep score ? You were in the Boy Scout’s Order of the Arrow and performed tap outs at Roane County Park by the Lake at night with Joel Pearlman. Hearing those Indian’s drum beats and see those canoes filled with Indians and their lighted torches approaching at night with the audience watching from the lake side which was pretty cool. I thought you and Joel were pretty awesome in your Indian Costumes.
Or when went hunting at our uncle Mike’s and Aunt Metas’s Farm in Clarksville and ate watermelons in the back of the farm truck with our cousin little Mike while uncle Uncle Mike and his farm hand Sam drank cool ones in the cab. We got really scared when our cousins Emily and Kay told us scary stories of the Bell Witch who had lived nearby and tortured those close to her. We really liked it there.
We swung on wisteria vines below our house near David Nelson’s house across deep ravines in an area overtaken by Kudzu that we dubbed “Fairyland”. I remember when Danny Wright swung out over the ravine and the vine broke. He fell about 15 feet and cried after he hit the ground hard but like all of us learned to shake it off and go on. You displayed your strength and bravery after being chased around the elementary school playground by the school bully in your later elementary school years, until one day, you lured him into the remote corner of the playground and beat him into submission. Your teacher later told you he deserved it and you wouldn’t have to go to the principal’s office for corporal punishment administered in those days.
You played football from midget league thru high school with your friends, many who are here today, and who will testify that your tackling hits could literally “rock your world”. You, David Nelson and Jimmy Curtis where the “terrible trio” linebackers I believe your senior year. As a life guard at the country club pool, you never seem to have a problem finding the girls.
I remember a particular incident where you were when we both returned home from college, in Harriman where I went out and had a little too much to drink with some of my friends sitting here with us that I heaved up in the twin bed next to you in the middle of the night. When mom came down the next morning and saw the mess I was sleeping in she gave you a really hard time for not caring for your sick brother, who had told her that morning that he had a bad case of food poisoning the evening before.
Your love for your wife Carolyn was shown when you, I and Joey were having a few libations in a small village tavern in the Swiss Alps one night on a European trip and one of the local’s took an interest in your wife. It almost turning into a Wild West brawl “Swiss” style
.
While God gave you many gifts, your athletic ability, your hunting and fishing skills, and your business management expertise, I believe your gift of storytelling was the most impressive amongst them all, and will be fondly remembered by us all!
Your stories about the hunting trips to Alaska with Jerry Shepherd and the story of lost rifle, or the story of how you were threatened with a knife held to your eye while trying to collect a bill from a good ole boy customer in Wartburg, TN.
There was a talent we did not know about and discovered a few years back, some of your hunting buddies may have known of it, – it’s your musical talent. I don’t think you would mind me telling that story as you were a comedian and you could give it as well as receive it. As you know the faintest sound can travel far over water.
Your “trouser trumpet playing” was a daily ritual that you engaged in early in the morning with a coffee cup in hand while you lived at the lake. Folks at the marina across the lake would yell at you to "hey quit that". It was a log house and it was definitely not sound proof. You could hear people talking through the walls in other rooms, and even outside, at apparently, over great distances. One weekend, when Josephine and I were visiting you, we overheard this symphony that lasted for quite some time. Josephine and I erupted in laughter once we realized what the sound was, who it came from, and realizing you had no idea we overheard your serenade. It was very hard keeping a straight face when we were all together later that day. After some time, Josephine could no longer stand it and gave a great reprise of that amazing performance of that we call the “Silvey Curse”.
You took it all in stride proving that you were good-natured about it! We’ll never forget that!
One of your last stories you told was when we were visiting you at UT Medical Center. You were telling us that the lady in charge of the food pantry soup line was had to demote you because you were being too generous with your serving portions.
Some years ago as the story is told by Carolyn, she had written a valentine’s day card that read “you and I were destined to be together “. All the good and bad we went through in our past was worth it to be with you now and forever. After all our year together “I still feel like we are honeymooners. Your loving wife Carolyn.
Carolyn had a habit of collecting greeting cards. She came across this one written long ago. She read the note she wrote inside and felt it as if it had the same meaning years latter. She gave it to him and he keeps it on his desk.
Another time on their anniversary they exchanged greeting cards only to find out they had both selected the very same card. They were very much in sync with each other.
If my memory was better, I would be able to spend a long time telling stories about our lives here. You demonstrated, time and time again, a particular characteristic – that you always cared for others. You spent many years taking care of mom, dad and Aunt Rose and Carolyn. I never remember you asking for anyone for any help.
I was looking forward to spending our twilight years together, but unfortunately that’s not going to happen now and for that I am very sad.
I believe in God, and believe that "God is Love", and in His commandment to “love one another”, and that the purpose of man is to glorify Him. I believe that all present here would testify that Fred led his life in obedience to that commandment. Now father we entrust Fred into your loving arms.
Fred, We’ll all miss you and we’ll feel you are still near as we sit around the camp fire in the evenings and tell Fred Silvey stories.