This summer has been one of indescribable loss for me - many friends have passed away and my mother left us in August.  Since mid-July, I have attended seven memorial services - including Tim's today - and will attend another next Thursday. Tim's, however, was truly memorable and I will remember it until my last day. It was a powerful mixture of sacred, irreverent, humorous and touching historical vignettes.
I want to share with you my great appreciation of Tim as a person and also of his thoughtfulness shortly after he read my mother's obituary in The Island Packet mid- August.  Tim wrote a moving letter to me, which came as a total surprise.  I've known him since 1973 but I didn't know he was a letter writer and I didn't realize his wonderfully witty outward persona hid a beautifully thoughtful inward person. The two of you naturally would know of his tender side, but I did not until I read his letter.  He referred to the dash in one's life that separates years of birth and death and how the quality of a life lived in the 'dash' is more significant than the number of years . Tim wrote me at a  time in his life when he did not yet know he was terminally ill.  Perhaps by mid August, when he penned his letter to me, he already felt unwell, but he expressed an interest in my mother, whom he had not met, that will always be appreciated by me. He was gone before I could gather the right words of admiration and appreciation to send to him.
You must be so proud of him.  Always remember the number of people who came today to express admiration, affection and respect for who he was and what he stood for.  What a legacy to leave on Hilton Head Island!  It was a privilege to know Tim and he is now a major part of Island history and lore.  There will not be another like him, here or anywhere, and you two were the most important people in his life.
God bless his selfless soul.