Today it is 14 years since Steve left us. He was 18 then, so we soon will have lived without him as long as we had him. I am thankful for the years we had him with us and the memories which are ours to keep.
Steve had a vivid imagination which began to show itself as soon as he could talk. Here are a few of his antics.
*When he was four years old, he went to Virginia with my sister and I. He was into Pooh Bear at the time, so he told Pooh stories the whole way to Harrisonburg. After a few stories, he climbed into the back seat so he would have more room to act out the stories he was telling.
* At 5, he liked to wear half of a worn out basketball on his head so he could have a "ball head" like Grandpa Burkholder.
*At 7, when he was supposed to be getting a bath, he acted out Ethel Barrett's version the story of Naaman dipping in the Jordan seven times to be cured of his leprosy. I heard him counting as he jumped in and out of the tub seven times and then shouted, "It is gone! I am clean! Can this thing be?" I laughed, but let him know seven jumps into the tub did not equal a bath so he better get in there and scrub!
*At 8, he and his little brother were pirates. He put the Raggedy Andy dolls in a half-bushel basket with an empty paper towel roll for a spyglass and set them on top of a post, simulating the crow's nest of a ship. Then the pirates attacked the ship with their wooden swords.
* At 9, he drew a picture on the back of a church bulletin illustrating the words of a song, "I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder." His picture was not very appropriate to be drawn during the service of a church that teaches nonresistance! It showed a beareded man thunking a boy on the head. Stars were flying around the boy's head while a bolt of lightning felled a tree behind them.
* At 10, he baked a surprise birthday cake for Mom (with the "help" of his 5 year old brother) while she was away. The only frosting on the cake said "We love you"--with a heart for the middle word. (I don't have a heart on my keyboard.)
* At 13, he argued FOR slavery in a debate at school. His presentation was so convincing he WON the debate.
* At 15, he decided he could be his own barber. His first attempt was badly botched, but he soon was so skilled he became the barber for his brothers as well as himself.
* At 16, he wrote a "computer program" to tell a person's fortune by his age. According to his program, anyone over 17 is an "old timer."
* At 17, he was in the Voices of Praise Chorus. When they were on tour, he would go prowling up the aisle of the bus with a flashlight doing a "hand check." (Shining the flashlight on couples to see if they were holding hands.)
* At 18, he planned a Scavenger Hunt for the youth group. Each team was to find and record ten sounds, including a toilet flushing, horn blowing, dog barking, someone running up or down stairs, balloon popping, etc. The youth activity was canceled that night due to icy roads, so they never got to do it.
After he was gone, one of his friends wrote on a memory card, "If Steve was around and nothing was happening, he usually made something happen." That pretty much sums up Steve! He was an unforgettable person. This is the last picture we have of him, taken on his 18th birthday seven weeks before he left us.
"It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all."
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