This message was delivered at Uncle Dave’s funeral by his nephew Curt Penland.

Aunt Betty asked me to give a short message to all of you today.   So I sat down and thought about what Uncle Dave meant to me.  It took some time but after doing some soul searching I thought about a passage in the bible which was Deuteronomy 25:4-6 and here is what it says:

If brothers are living together and one of them dies without a son, his widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband's brother shall take her and marry her and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her.

Now you may say what does that have to do with Uncle Dave?  Well, I looked into this Old Testament scripture and what I see is love.  It is love and most of all a sense of responsibility for the family.  This is what made these early men of God take his deceased Brother’s Wife into his family and care for her.  In many respects I can see that “kind” of love and of responsibility in Uncle Dave and in the Martin family. 

As many of you may know I did not have such a rosy life in my late teens living with a step Father that told me to my face “there is nothing thicker than family blood and you ain’t my blood”.  As you can imagine, living with a tyrant like that for 10 or more years can wear you down.  Then one day in the Fall of 1976 Bob Martin seen that I had had enough.  So with the blessing of Aunt Betty and Uncle Dave, who were in Florida at the time, Bob laterally extracted me from my step-father’s house and moved me in with him.  Here we can see where the Martin family stepped up to it’s responsibility of taking care of the family. 

After living with the Martins for a period of time, I asked Uncle Dave and Aunt Betty if they would mind if called them Mom and Dad.  Aunt Betty had a blank stare on her face for a second and then she quickly digested what I had just asked for and she seen that I was reaching out for something to fill the void in my life and that was a Mom and Dad. She quickly agreed to the request and Uncle Dave gave a nod of his head to give his approval as well.  This gave me a great sense of security to be able to have a Mom and Dad again.  Life was good. 

Now if we back up the wheels of time a year or two prior to my event and I would like to talk about my Sister Laura.  Laura went through the same stress of living with a tyrant and she was more of a strong willed child than I ever was.  Then one day she decided she had had enough and she ran away.  I was crushed.  There I was, all alone, with out a Sister and I did not know where she went.  A few days later I found out she had moved in with Uncle Dave’s daughter Linda.  Here we can see where the family is taking care of the family again just like I mentioned the early men of God taking care of his extended family.  Laura had some rough times ahead in her life but she pulled through and is now rounding the corner on a lot of her issues from the past.

Now lets back up the wheels of time 10 or more years prior to Laura’s event and now I would like to talk about my Father Bill.  After a really harsh break up with my Mother, my Dad was looking for a place to live and you know what?  It was the Martin family to the rescue.  My Dad moved in with Uncle Dave and his family.  Here we can see another case of family taking care of family. 

It’s hard to say what kind of person I would be today if Uncle Dave’s family didn’t extract me from the environment I was in.  Who knows, I may have just self destructed.  But I do know one thing, I never regretted a single day of living with the Martin’s. 

Years later when I was older and able to understand it all, Aunt Betty shared a few things with me over a cup of tea about my Mother and Father that really got me thinking.  Two of those things come to mind.  One is when she told my Dad that I was calling Aunt Betty and Uncle Dave, Mom and Dad.  My Dad didn’t particularly like it and that is when he told her, Curt’s already got a Mom and Dad.  I kind of felt sorry for my Dad when I heard that and I’ll never forget it.  On a lighter note, another thing that comes to mind is when my Dad told Aunt Betty and Uncle Dave he HAD to move out of their house and move in with a friend because his pants were way to tight.  It seems that he just could not take anymore of the Martin’s loving and Aunt Betty’s cooking was just to good to turn down.

A large portion of my past has been intertwined with Uncle Dave’s family and it still is today.  Laura and I are invited to a lot of Martin family events and it helps fill in the void of having a Mother and a Father who passed away at such a early age.

I’m sure all of you know that Uncle Dave was in a lot of pain and discomfort in the past few years and getting around for just day to day activities that you and I take for granted, were only a thing of the past for him. Walking for a minute or two for Uncle Dave was rough.  But the book Revelations 21:21 says the streets of heaven are paved in gold and the bible also says we will all have heavenly bodies.  Bodies without pain.  So picture in your mind seeing Uncle Dave walking the streets of gold with his Sister Mary and her bird Ta-le-ma.  We should not feel sorry for Uncle Dave because he is in a far better place and we could only imagine what it’s like to be there

In closing I would like to leave you with a quote from my spiritual mentor, and the Pastor of my church.   Live simply, love generously, forgive quickly, serve faithfully, speak truthfully, pray daily and leave everything else to God.

Curt Penland