Dear friends…my heart is so heavy and I am so overcome with grief with the tragic loss of my nephew. I want to thank each and every one of you for your kind and loving remarks and prayers throughout the thread, through pm’s, emails or phone calls. It is overwhelming to know how you all care and grieve with our family. I am very scared of the days, weeks, months and years ahead. Nothing will be the same as life was when we had Richie here. I will be there for Judy and Darrel as we begin this long journey of grief.
Richie had many struggles throughout his adult life with substance abuse. We prayed and prayed for him and finally he entered Teen Challenge and became a happy person again with a great love for life.
I would love for you to see the Tribute that was done for Rich. It is beautiful, and played during visitation at the funeral home and also after the funeral during the lunch and gathering of friends and family. In the tribute you will see many pictures…many with Judy and Darrel, Rich’s son, Alex, the kids as they grew up. In the pictures where there is an extra little girl with Judy’s kids, that is my Melissa. Our kids were always together…they were either here or at Judy’s. There’s a little horse bench that my Dad made for Richie. Pictures of my parents with Richie…a few of my Mom with Rich…one of me with Richie on the merry-go-round at the fair, pictures of towers he has worked on, him climbing a tower…on the tower…and…in this tribute you will also see some of his artwork. He was an amazing artist. At the very end of the video, just after the Bible verse, you will see that picture that Rich sent me the week before he died. He also sent that picture to his Dad’s cell phone along with a voice message and you will hear that message. Here is the link to Rich’s obituary and just under that, if you click on ‘video tribute’, it will take you there.
Darrel Hovde
It is about 10 minutes and I know that is a long time out of your busy lives, but I would love for you to see it.
The flowers I got for the funeral, I had them do to match the casket spray. After the funeral, we had the funeral home place it on Mom’s and Dad’s grave. I went up that evening and took a picture. I took a picture of Richie’s grave, but can’t bare to show that right now but here is the flowers on my parent’s graves. I will go there today to put grass seed on Rich’s grave, as the sod they put down looks awful.
Thank you again, for your prayers and kindness.