The funeral home was filled to overflowing with family and friends wanting to pay last respects to a man whom eulogizers described as "larger than life," generous and good-spirited. Jerome served as a village councilman, built homes professionally, coached girls' basketball, and mentored more than a few in need of advice on their road to sobriety. Several humorously described their relationships with him, invariably describing him as a teddy bear under a brusque disguise, opinionated but straight speaking and generous with his time.
Jerome, only 65, began a rather rapid decline when he fell off a roof in 2008 while helping a friend re-roof his house. It seems fitting that his life even in its demise was shaped by generosity. One person reminded us that Jesus was a carpenter, and that Jerome was a carpenter's carpenter, highly professional and attentive to detail. One young lady reminisced on his flowing blond hair and beard and piercing blue eyes. Another affirmed Jerome's spirituality, noting that he recommended a daily prayer for strength, and regularly counseled "suck it up," in response to those who doubted its efficacy or who were tempted to fall along the wayside. (Jerome ran an AA meeting once a week for years.) In many ways he resembled Jesus, though he rejected Catholic liturgical practice. Yet even here he may have been close to Jesus' dislike of hypocrisy and hubris.
An ex-Marine, Jerome had bright-line opinions about many things, and didn't mince words in expressing them. But many felt his charisma, and valued his confidence. The town obituary article labeled him "a prickly person," but we all agreed better adjectives were "passionate" and "bold." The local minister joked about Jerome's "colorful" language while volunteering on a Habitat house Jerome was helping build. She said she told him later that she used him as an example in a sermon, saying that his language was dubious, but that he prayed very hard with his hands.
Every life reaches a "bottom line," an accounting, and Jerome's was fondly described in his friends' good words for him, their "eu-logies." It struck me that a bottom line arises from the vast "detail" of daily life, the daily ledger entries of efforts (not always successful) to discern and do the good. The speakers made clear that Jerome's bottom line in carpentry, and personal and civic life, was positive.
How do we characterize the often smudged efforts that nevertheless sum up to a positive bottom line? For a Christian it is writing figures in love. Only these "sum up" to a positive. I could tell from the folks at Jerome's funeral that Jerome knew his figures, for his ledger book was positive to overflowing . . . in friends!
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