Gene Speaks at Fred's Funeral - 1990

This "Message from the Family" was prepared and read by Gene Henry on the occasion of his brother's funeral service held November 26th, 1990. Frederick Hawley Henry passed away November 21st, 1990._

Here, recorded for posterity, is the heavenly dialog Dad wrote for Fred's memorial service.

Message From the Family

Gene: Fred, and Janet are back together after nearly five years. I can picture this conversation between them:

Fred: You know, there might be some people down there who may be a little sad because I left so soon. They shouldn't be. I was kind of miserable the last few months, and I sure didn't want to hang around as an invalid. I'm much happier back with you.

Jan: Well, it's good to see you again. (pause) Do you realize that if it weren't for us, sixteen people wouldn't be down there—six kids and ten grandchildren?

Fred: Eleven grandchildren.

Jan: Have I miscounted?

Fred: No, but since you left, Heidi and Jim just had a baby.

Jan: (Big smile) Great! What else has happened?

Fred: Well, let's see... Scott and Paula got married.

Jan: (Big smile... and a bit incredulously) Great! What else?

Fred: Well, Mom, aka Grandma, aka GG, aka Great Grandma, is going to have a centennial pretty soon. I sort of wish I'd been around for that. Oh, also four of our kids moved into Geauga County.

Jan: What's the big attraction there?

Fred: They wanted to vote for their cousin Chip. Geauga is in his district.

Jan: What's he running for?

Fred: He already ran. He's a State Senator now.

Jan: Great! You know, we have a lot of things to talk about. Great memories... Camping, canoeing, Canadian trips, Vermont trips, Hiram, the Cabin, the Shed, family get-togethers, annual cousins' reunions, births, and birthdays. Incidentally, since I left, I've noticed every late February orange balloons floating up this way, some almost got here. Do you know what that is all about?

Fred: Yes, those come from our grandchildren in memory of when you left. They'll be glad you saw them.

Fred: Is it true there are no cigarettes up here?

Reflections on Fred

Brothers John, Don, and I had a pretty tough act to follow growing up behind Fred. He was four years older than John, six years older than I [Gene], and seventeen years older than Don. In some ways, he made things easier for us, and in other ways, more difficult. As the first child, he got our mother and father used to the problems of raising four boys. But also, he set a pretty high standard and reputation for us to try to live up to.

During the Second World War, he flew B-1s for fifty missions over Europe from Italy. About a month ago, I stopped by to see him and got to reminiscing about the war. He had always kind of downplayed his part in it. He got his mission logbook out and we went over each mission, detailing those with heavy flak or fighter attacks.

One mission to the Ploesti oil fields in Romania resulted in his plane catching on fire and all but two of his crew bailing out. It made me realize how fortunate he was to survive the war and how fortunate we are to have had him with us as long as we have.

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This was published in the original Henry Howler Family News from the 1990 December edition while Dan and Cindy were teachers in Danger Bay Alaska.

https://family.henryhowler.com/docs/all-of-dans-original-howlers-1990-1992#/