For as long as I can remember, everybody who knew him told us that he was
a great man.
Only with his passing, did I realize how truly great he was.
In the fullness of his life,in the number of lives he touched and
changed;
In the multitude who came to mourn and those who mourned, not being
there;
In the many stories that were recalled every one of them an expression of
either admiration, gratitude or fondness;
To the end, a man of and for the masses, a true son of the soil.
In the frugality of his life, the simplicity of his ways, devoid of any
burden of guilt;
In the bareness of his possessions, in his magnanimity, in the magnitude
of his generosity;
In the values that he lived by, his innocence, his pleasures - as simple
and untainted as the soil he helped plow as a child;
In the many deeds that he accomplished, his accomplishments coming in
spite of his situation,
In spite of who he was, where he came from and how little he possessed;
In his children, accomplished in their own right, brought to fore by
nothing more than the sweat of his honest labor;
A loving father, a doting grandfather;
In the uncommon sincerity of his empathy and warmth, towards humans and animals alike;
In the genuine spontaneity of his undiscriminating hospitality;
In the hearts he won, a man who was all heart;
Philanthropist, Freedom fighter, a Rustic at heart and a Gentleman par
compare – rarely, if ever, shall come men like this.
