Sunday, July 9, 2023
BEST FRIENDS
On July 3rd, 2023, at 10:47am, we lost my best friend.
Francis Smith
Francis and I met when I took the position of traffic manager with NTB in Kansas City and moved there. Francis was hired as one of the local drivers. We soon became close friends.
Francis and I both enjoyed fishing. We would often hook up my bass boat and go to one of the lakes close to Kansas City and fish. On a few occasions, we had the opportunity to participate in one of the Bassmasters fishing tournaments. Whether or not we caught any fish, we always had a good time.
We stayed in touch regularly after my family and I moved back to Indiana. Francis would come and stay and he and I would always go fishing. When we purchased a house in Florida, Francis would come and stay a month or so, and with the weather permitting, we would fish every day.
When we sold the house in Florida, he would come to Indiana and stay with us for a couple weeks or so and we would always go fishing as often as we could.
His visits always made us very happy.
When he wasn’t visiting, they would talk on the phone, sometimes for several hours. Often they would have to put their cell phones on charge. Hard to believe two people could talk on the phone that long, especially about fishing.
The week before he died, we talked on Sunday night, about 10:30pm his time, for 41 minutes while he was in the hospital getting prepped for surgery. We talked about fishing and his coming here to stay a while after he healed from his surgery. We were both looking forward to his visit, and we had always told him we had an open door for him to come and stay anytime.
Francis is sorely missed. And I will think about him whenever I go fishing.
Love and miss you always, buddy.
JD
