Memories and Eulogies Shared

Trinity United Methodist Church

January 21, 2017

Pastor Julia Wertz

TIME OF REMEMBRANCE  

 

Bryan Corrie    System Engineer IT Dept 870 Delta Air Lines

Alan and I started our careers together back in the early eighties at Delta Air Lines as IT engineers. We were in the same training class in Atlanta. We both moved to Jacksonville Florida on March 15th 1984 with our belongings in the same moving truck. He, I and my wife Linda became very good friends. Alan and I worked side by side and never had a single disagreement. Alan moved to Orlando then FT Myers but we continued to be in the same department and still worked together often. He was not a practicing Christian but you wouldn’t know it by his actions. He always respected and loved his fellow man and lived the life like a Christian. He always did the right thing. One of his last ditch efforts at a cure for his cancer was a visit to the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville. My wife took him there. They pretty much said there was nothing they could do for him. When he got in the car to leave my wife asked him “Where do you want to go?” His answer was HEAVEN. He was a Very Very Special Person and friend and will be dearly missed.

—

Scott Feucht Field Service Engineer

Uncle Alan was a guy who wanted to make you laugh. Growing up, this was usually by tickling you to death. As we got older, it turned into witty one liners and funny jokes. Alan’s laugh was contagious. He always wanted to bring the best out of a person and to see them truly happy. Going to Uncle Alan’s place in Florida for family vacations was always a highlight I looked forward to growing up. Going to Walt Disney World, the Everglades, and the amazing beaches. Alan lived his life to the fullest. Never one for drama or stressing over things. As long as he had his Pepsi and cigarette, he had a smile on his face. I love you Uncle Alan. Always keep that smile on your face and keep making everyone around you laugh. Also…. Do me a favor… Send Gma my love and tell her that her money is in the bank

—

Pamela Berger RN/CHPN

HI!My name is Pam and I was the nurse who took care of Alan in his home in Florida. I wanted to share with you how privileged I was to have been his nurse. Alan was a year younger than I am so I guess it always makes me realize my mortality when I have young patients. Maybe that’s why I identified with him.  He was funny. He was soft spoken and sweet. He had all the reasons in the world to be bitter and angry but he wasn’t! I asked him one day why he did not pursue a lawsuit pertaining to his (lack of ) care and his reply was “What ‘s the point?” Exactly…. What would have been the point of him spending his last days on earth angry and negative? He chose to be happy and content with what he had left.

He was a loyal friend and his friends were fiercely loyal to him. They drove hours to check on him. They took turns visiting just to make sure he was doing okay. They honored his wishes and let him have his time alone when he needed it. They loved him so much!

Alan chose to have his sister and father at his side when he left this world. They took care of his every need. They stopped everything in their lives to be with him and surrounded him with their love. I can’t think of a better definition of “family”.

Every once an a while I get to be a small part of the end of a special  person’s story. I want to thank Alan for letting me be a part of his. I have been blessed to know him.

—

Wayne Moss  Director – IT Field Operations

My remembrances of Alan are:

Alan loved to laugh, and he enjoyed making others laugh.  In fact, he wasn’t satisfied until he had people around him laughing and smiling.

I would say that Alan was “Quickly Witty”.   He could easily verbalize an accurate response to whatever was being discussed.  Most often, his responses generated smiles and laughter.

 

Alan had a keen ability to find a happy way to cope with a challenge.

 

He didn’t complain, as least not to me…   He treasured his Delta Family and his customers.   He was much more than a co-worker.   He was Family.

 

It has hurt me deeply, to know even slightly, the enormous pain and difficulty he has endured.

—

 

1 Corinthians 13The Message (MSG)The Way of Love

13 If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.

² If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.

^3-7 If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

^8-10 Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.

¹¹ When I was an infant at my mother’s breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.

¹² We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!

¹³ But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.

 

Meditation/Eulogy    “FAITH, HOPE AND LOVE….THE GREATEST OF THESE IS LOVE

I believe that the understanding of ALAN’S LIFE  is expressed very well in today’s SCRIPTURE READING FROM I CORINTHIANS 13 demonstrating how ALAN GAVE AND RECEIVED THE GIFT OF LOVE DURING HIS LIFE’S JOUNEY.   

ALAN ENJOYED loving and receiving love as being part of God’s creation where there is a time for everything. We are given the gift of human life by God and at the end of this earthly life there is yet another gift from God—the gift of eternal life. In the gospel of John we hear that if we have faith in Jesus Christ, who died on the cross so that our sins could be forgiven, then we will also enjoy eternal life with Jesus.

Alan L. Keller was born on May 29, 1960 in Massillon to Arvine Keller and the late Dorothy (Yatsko) Keller. Alan was a graduate of Perry High School, Akron University and Embry-Riddle University.

Alan loved to be the life of the party. He was kind, thoughtful, generous and caring. He had never met a stranger. He thought of life as an adventure and loved to live it. He worked as a Technology Specialist for Delta Airlines for thirty – four years.  LOVED PETS…KITTY CLEO 20 YR

—

 

written BY ALAN 2 weeks before his passing:

Hey folks, this will probably be the last post from me as I continue to get weaker and everything becomes much harder to do.

It has shocked me to find out over the last few months how many caring and sincere friends I have accumulated over the years. Sure, we all collect a few good friends, but I was so flabbergasted that there were so many cut from the finest material and would do anything to help me. Taking time from their lives, their work and their families. You folks are the reason that my life has been such a blast and I could never thank you all enough.

As I pass to the next stage, the biggest worry that I have is that our children are losing their innocence, their childhood if you will. Childhood was such fun for me and I wish it could stay that way for all kids, but with the shootings, killings and like of viagras and other commercials, their innocence is gone

I’ve been pretty much a no drama person and if I had one line of wisdom to leave folks, it would be before you start or continue an argument, ask yourself one question: A week from now or a month from now, will this argument really matter? Almost every time you’ll realize it’s about something trivial that won’t have any affect on the future except to cause hash words and bad feelings until both people realize this. So forget the argument and go do something enjoyable and life will improve instantly. Even a quarter pounder with cheese beats a two hour fight.

I’ve been blessed with terrific friends and a family that has been second to none. Maybe you look at it as I had a good hand dealt to me? Well, you can take a bad hand with a good attitude and turn it into something enjoyable. It’s just up to you.

Thank you and good bye.  Smile every day, take care and I’ll see you on the other side.

—

TO CHERISH ALAN’S MEMORY ARE HIS father. his sister, Cheryl (Richard) Feucht; three nephews, Scott (Revital) Feucht, Cory (Maggie) Feucht and Drew Feucht; and two grand-nephews, Camden and Owen

Alan has requested that his friends and family should show love for your fellow man, give generously to those in need and live life to the fullest.

—

FOOT PRINTS IN THE SAND

LAST night I had a dream.  I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord.  Across the sky flashed scenes from my life.  For each scene, I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand: one belonged to me, the other to the Lord.

 AFTER the last scene of my life flashed before me, I looked back at the footprints in the sand.  I noticed that at many times along the path of my life, especially at the very lowest and saddest times, there was only one set of footprints.

THIS really troubled me, so I asked the Lord about it.  “Lord, you said  once I decided to follow you, You’d walk with me all the way.  But I noticed that during the saddest and most troublesome times of my life, there was only one set of footprints.  I don’t understand why, when I needed You the most, You would leave me.”

THE Lord replied, “My son, my precious child, I love you and I would never leave you.  During your times of suffering, when you could see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you.”

 

______________________

 

Obituary

Alan Lee Keller

May 29, 1960 – January 13, 2017 
Resided in North Fort Myers, FL

Alan L. Keller, 56, passed away at home in North Fort Myers, FL, surrounded by his family on January 13, 2017.

He was born on May 29, 1960 in Massillon to Arvine Keller and the late Dorothy (Yatsko) Keller.  Alan was a graduate of Perry High School, Akron University and Embry-Riddle University.

Alan loved to be the life of the party. He was kind, thoughtful, generous and caring. He had never met a stranger.  He thought of life as an adventure and loved to live it. He worked as a Technology Specialist for Delta Airlines for thirty – four years.

In addition to his father he is also survived by his sister, Cheryl (Richard) Feucht; three nephews, Scott (Revital) Feucht, Cory (Maggie) Feucht and Drew Feucht; and two grand-nephews, Camden and Owen.

Friends may call on Saturday, January 21, 2017 from 10:00am-11:00am at Trinity United Methodist Church where a funeral service will be held at 11:00am, Rev. Julia Wertz, officiating.  Burial will be in Union Lawn Cemetery.

Messages of condolence may be sent to the family atwww.arnoldlynch.com

Alan has requested in-lieu of flowers that his friends and family should show love for your fellow man, give generously to those in need and live life to the fullest.