From the March 4th edition of the Westfield Republican newspaper, a tribute I wrote in memory of a friend of mine.

Tribute to Joel Ferree

I read the following on a friend’s Facebook page: If you knew you would never see me again, I wonder what one thing you would want to tell me.

We always wait too long, don’t we? A friend to many of us, Joel Ferree, passed away recently. Many nice things will be said of him, but how many of us said those things to him personally during his brief stay with us here on earth? I hope many of you did.

Joel was a man of many talents and interests. I hadn’t gotten to know him well enough to know he played several instruments, including the kazoo. We played kazoos at his funeral. I wish someone had given a brief lesson on how to play a kazoo, however. It was a new experience for me. What a loving tribute to a man who lived his life looking for the unusual and bizarre. I’ll bet he was looking down and laughing.

I knew Joel as a writer, although I had no idea to what extent he wrote. His tongue-in-cheek column in the Dunkirk Observer was only one facet of his wit and humor. I remember talking with him about an idea for his next column, about a snowflake who wanted to be different. I wonder if he had a chance to work on it. His powers of observation of the humor condition (no, that’s not a typo) were wonderful to behold.

I once wrote a column called Ripples, and how we all make some sort of impact on others during our lifetime. People like Joel don’t make ripples, they make huge splashes. From the stories and anecdotes I’ve heard, his life was an amazing one, particularly in his ability to connect with those of us less gifted, less insightful. As Rev. Dale Francis said, Joel was out of step with the rest of us mortals. Rev. Francis suspects Joel was a half-step ahead and I don’t doubt it.

A lovely comment was made at his funeral that I’d like to share. Joel, and his lovely wife, Mo, are two people who make it easy to love them, out of proportion to our knowing them. That’s not exactly how it was said, but basically it means that even if you didn’t know them well, you just really, really like them anyway. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be that kind of person? Someone you really want to know better, and be around because they make you feel good about yourself.

To paraphrase Ecclesiastes 3:4, there is a time to mourn the loss of Joel in our lives, and there is a time to rejoice in knowing he spent some time with us here and that we will enjoy his company again someday.