A Sad Throwback Thursday

This Throwback Thursday picture unfortunately has a sad story to go along with it.

The date was 36 years ago in August 1973. It was a birthday party for one of the kids from the church that I grew up in. The birthday boy is Dean Roy pictured on the left. Dean's cousin Dana is on the far left and a boy named Roger is on the right. Roger was one of those kids who always liked to have fun. You can probably see that little mischevous twinkle in his eyes. His grandmother was our church secretary for years. They lived close to our church so the church van stayed parked at their house. Rumor had it that he sneaked out of the house one night and took the church van out to cruise up and down Ruth Street in Sulphur which was "the thing" to do on Friday and Saturday nights in our little town. I don't know if that was true or not. But I still smile when I think about an old beat up blue church van cruising the strip with Roger at the wheel.

I recently ran across the above picture and just a few days ago I got a friend request from Roger on Facebook. We weren't really close growing up, but we did go to church together and saw each other here and there at school. I commented on his wall that his little girl looked so cute and asked how he was doing. You could tell from the pictures that she had her daddy wrapped around her little finger. She is probably about the same age now that he was in this picture (maybe 6 or 7). He responded that I "looked great" and he was contemplating moving back to Sulphur. Just small talk.

Tuesday of this week I found out he passed away. Just like that. He was 41 years old. I don't know any details of what happened. I am just very sad for his family (I knew many of his aunts and uncles, his dad and his brother and sister). I'm also sad for a little girl who won't grow up with her Daddy.