In Loving Memory of Rodney Louis Mansfield
It has been three weeks since we lost Rod on May 17, 2014.
This memorial has been a while in coming. Compiling the photos and special stories of Rod’s life has been an emotional rollercoaster for all of us. Losing Rod left an enormous void in our lives and it has been very difficult to accept that he is really gone.
Rod was a son, an uncle, a best friend and a brother for nearly 41 years. He touched the lives of so many people, like a ray of sun on a stormy day.
There could be a book written of all the memories over the years, growing up in the 70’s and 80’s, living out in the country near Mt. Vernon, Washington and later, in the boonies of Eastern Washington.
There are memories of important childhood pursuits like climbing trees, damming up the creek with old rotten logs, scaring mom half to death, putting frog eggs in each other’s boots, forgetting to remove the snakes and frogs from our pockets before mom did the laundry, or catching frogs and playing in the swamp behind the house.
Memories of two little boys at the back door covered with swamp mud from head to toe, being told by a surprised mother to strip down to be hosed off before being let into the house.
There were fun times making (frequently) our favorite toffee bar recipe with mom. You know, not much of the dough made it to the cookie sheet! Painting mom’s face with her makeup to look like a wild-eyed Indian, or running thru the house after a bath, with mom in hot pursuit, threatening to pinch our “cute” little butts. The times we had to wait for dad to finish playing with our Christmas legos before we could have a turn. Memories of making mom and dad breakfast in bed, serving them our specialty of charcoal eggs and toast.
Rod loved being in God’s creation. As little boys we would spend hours at the beach with mom, collecting rocks and playing in the tide pools, catching hermit crabs and playing with the other myriad little creatures that the pools hold. There were picnics at Sunset beach in Anacortes, canoeing at Baker Lake or Lake McMurray, smelt fishing with dad in the dark at the LaConner Marina on the Swinomish channel.
He was quite the rock hound as well and always had a couple pockets full of priceless geological treasures. The driveway could have been graveled with all the rocks that got collected.
There was dirt bike riding on logging roads in Eastern Washington and scaring the little girl we grew up with half out of her wits. We found some kind of perverse humor in making our little surrogate sister, Shayla, beg for us to slow down.
In the teen years, Rod started playing the guitar and singing. Of course, he was pretty shy about it in the beginning but he got over that. Later on, brother got inspired to learn to play too. Many, many hours were spent playing music together. Later, Rod went on to become the worship leader at a couple of the churches he went to. He loved music.
There were road trips to Santa Maria, CA to visit Grandma and the relatives and 4-wheelin’ on the sand dunes in the early 90’s with his little tiny Plymouth Champ. Late night journeys to Mt. Vernon, Washington to surprise mom before she moved.
On long road trips, Rod loved to wait until you were deep in thought and then reach over, while you weren’t looking, and grab your leg, slam on the brakes, and scream all at the same time. It would scare the holy bejeebers out of a person!
Rod was such a big dreamer. He brought a shiny red Porsche 944 home so mom could have her “midlife crisis” in style. Of course, he had to test the outer limits of German engineered performance to be sure it was suitable for mom.
He was the one who started the sailboat live-aboard adventure and sailing all over Admiralty Inlet and the San Juan Islands. Rod loved being out on the water, watching the sunset, sailing under a full moon or catching and cooking his favorite – crab! Those years have left us with some of our most cherished memories.
Rod also loved photography. He took pictures by the thousands. He took pictures of the mountains, the San Juan Islands, sunsets, full moon nights, pictures of himself jumping sand dunes on his quad, pictures of his various trucks on steep mountainsides, close-ups of his hairy legs,
pretty flowers and plants, and of course, pictures of Emma and the boys.
We can't forget about the quads. He loved riding 4-wheelers. There was something about the mixture of gasoline, dirt and knobby tires that transformed Rod from the quiet, shy man at a gathering, into a maniacal, gravity-defying, speed demon. He liked to go so fast that those riding with him would lose his track because he was so far ahead that even his dust had settled.
Rod loved children, it didn't matter if they were babies or teenagers. While living in Seattle he committed large amounts of his time and resources to form a youth center for troubled kids who were on the street and had nowhere to go.
He loved his stepchildren Cody and Chase, he loved his nieces and nephews, he loved working with the foster kids at the home his father-in-law, Walter, managed, and he dearly loved his adopted daughter Emma. Rod thought the world of Emma. She was very, very special to him. I found a song in the bottom of Rod’s guitar case. It was an old Kenny Loggins song that he had re-written, he titled it “Emma’s Song”.
It is difficult to comprehend the overwhelming sorrow and hopelessness that must have been in Rod’s heart at that last moment for him to have felt that Cody, Chase, Emma and the rest of us would be better off without him.
In the coming weeks, months and years, we ask that you hold the memory of Rod in your hearts. Cherish the precious memories of the good man we lost and ask God to give us the strength to carry the burden of grief. Our family continues to cherish Emma and the boys, and will try to preserve the legacy of love and commitment that Rod felt.
The gaping hole that has been left in our lives by this loss will not soon be filled. We will keep the precious memories of Rod alive. Memories of the caring, generous, adventuresome and sometimes zany, (woohoo!) man we all knew.
We loved you Rod and will miss you terribly! It will be hard to ever look at a sailboat, island sunset, 4-wheeler, logging road, sand dune, guitar, pretty flower or bottle of Mike’s Hard Lemonade the same way again.
May you rest in peace.