I am so touched as you wrote and shared Griffin’s life with us. Please write more as you wish. I will read every word. I said it before and I want to remind you, I am praying for you.
Last night a friend sat up with me until 4:30AM just listening as I told her story after story. The awe inspiring to the stupid to the hilarious and the ridiculous.
He was such a clown. And so intense. So determined to break through human barriers and to save the world one person at a time.
He’d randomly find himself moved to go to the store and buy a box of food for homeless people. He dragged drunk people home from the bar and make sure they were safe for the night. He helped a man detox of opiates. Spent two weeks nursing him through it. He had a habit of seeking out the grumpiest, most depressed, angriest person in the room, then talking to them until they laughed.
I was rolling my eyes with exasperation when he came home with yet another tattoo. He lit a cigarette, looked me in the eye and said, “I can’t reach the people who need to be reached in a suit, mom. Gotta speak their language.”
Those are the stories that remind me every day that he was worth every minute.
The community has come together for his wake. The Patriot Guard have volunteered to ride for him. We’re getting so much help. We’re roughly planning for 100. If we have too much food, we already have volunteers to take the excess to the veteran’s homeless camp on the side of town. If we don’t have enough, we’ll send people on a food run to walmart. People are coming from half way across the nation to honor him. People who I’ve never met.
This morning, I woke up to 24 new messages from people who I’ve never known. They all just wanted to share their stories.