Saturday, July 10, 2010

July 10--Saying Good-bye

On the 10th we attended Ian's funeral. As mentioned in the previous post he and Dave were best friends. Dave spoke at the funeral and if I can talk him into it I will post his talk here later-I know many of you who could not attend would like to read it.

Funeral's are never easy and Ian was so young and with his wife expecting their first child in September it was especially hard. Here are a few photo's from the day, and a few of my memories of Ian.

I met Ian when I met Dave. In fact you never really met just Dave or just Ian you usually met, "Dave & Ian." I was working in the Teton's summer of '98 and I just remember thinking how funny and charming he was. He and Dave could carry on this crazy silly banter that would make anyone laugh. Ian also had this goofy laugh that he would insert at sometimes the most random places in conversation and soon everyone would be cracking up. He would often say something silly or even slightly inappropriate then smile and laugh, "Did I just say that out loud?! (Dave does this too)

Ian loved adventure. He loved to climb, hike, camp...when I knew him he was always planning to scale some peak in the Teton's. The summer of '98 was when I first started really getting into backpacking and climbing and Dave and Ian were my rock climbing idol's. Dave spent many afternoons climbing up Odgen Canyon with Ian, they climbed the Middle Teton together, I think they made it up Mt. St. John in the Teton's and I know they summited a few more peaks in Salt Lake and just outside of Brigham City.


Ian had this innate musical talent that he was born with. He never took a music lesson yet he could write amazing songs for both the guitar and piano. I remember playing the piano one day (with music) and he sat down and just started improvising on the other end of the keyboard. At the funeral they played a song he wrote and sang called, "If I Were." At first I didn't remember it, but after the chorus I remembered him figuring out the lyrics and tune while in the Teton's.

The night before our first baby was born Dave and I went out to eat and while we were eating we decided if this baby had dark curly hair he would have to be Ian. Well he had dark curly hair when he was born and so the name stuck. It was neat to see the connection Ian's family had with our Ian--they all wanted to meet him and hug him.

Good-bye friend.






3 comments:

Jamie said...

I don't know how I had missed this post before, but thank you so much for writing it and posting all the pictures. It made me cry. You are right about the 'Dave & Ian'. :)

Mindy said...

Robyn- I'm glad you posted some pictures. I didn't know Ian that well but was still heartbroken when I heard of his passing. I'm glad Dave had a friend like him.

Unknown said...

I was going to write exactly what Jamie wrote, so...ditto. Thank you for sharing this lovely tribute.