…

While serving as the ward bishop, I conducted several funeral services. But these two were recent services where I sat with the mourners. Yesterday, my friend Dirk, retired like me from the DA's office, gave the eulogy for his son Ace, who unexpectedly died peacefully in his sleep just short of turning 31. I was so impressed with Dirk's eulogy, that I asked him for a copy.

Orson Curtis lived past age 98. He was a plasterer, and he and Lucinda were great friends of our family. In television's early days, before our family had one, Orson and Lucinda regularly invited us to their home to watch the Ed Sullivan show. In later years, I dated their niece who was visiting them from out-of-state. (It was on one of those dates that I spotted my future wife at a church young adult "fireside".) Ace and Orson were both remarkable men. Orson lived more than three times longer than Ace. But like Dirk, Orson's only son Vern predeceased him.

Here's Dirk's eulogy for Ace:
Ace’s Short but Remarkable Life

It is almost a cliché to say that you love someone “like a son.” In the case of Holman (“Ace”) Hudson, he was our son – and we loved him, as we did the other members of our family. But each person is beloved for their own qualities. In Ace, we found such qualities (in vast amounts) as love, courage, loyalty (including patriotism, serving his country in combat in Iraq), protectiveness (as of his little niece Miranda a victim of Type One diabetes), compassion, wisdom, savvy, balance, diligence, industry, and vision. In fact he was the type of person who made this country great – the very type of person this country needs more of if it is to survive. And we lost him, as did Lindsey, the love of his life and his wife of only six months. That pair we thought would go on forever and continue the family name.

Why then did God take Ace when he was in the prime of his life and at the top of his game? That was the question which we continue to ask. After all, Ace had been part of the Third Infantry Division which in only 22 days marched into Baghdad and deposed the tyrant Saddam Hussein who had attacked us multiple times on our own soil, including 9-11. After Ace’s honorable discharge from the Army, he and I drove up the east coast and back across the country, including Washington, D.C., Boston, Niagara Falls (Canadian side), Milwaukee, Boulder, Davis, Rohnert Park, visiting family along the way and returning home on Highway 5. Ace then found employment at a few companies, most notably JPL, in acquisitions (for the Mars Rover), and then formed his own placement company (with his partner Eric Stone). Last year, was the best one of his life. In June, he graduated from Cal. State L.A. with a degree in business and economics. In July, he married Lindsey and the two honeymooned in the Spanish isle of Minorca. Later he found employment at Northrup Grumman in Palmdale as a contract administrator. Ace was at the top of his game.

Nevertheless, everyone has their own life span. Most have the proverbial “three score and ten” and beyond. This varies from time period to time period and in different parts of the world. Compared with many other circumstances (e.g., Haiti) we are extremely fortunate and privileged. We should take the occasion of our own tragedies to alleviate the lives of others. Thus Holman urged us especially to join the fight for a cure of juvenile diabetes. From such events as this we learn empathy and compassion. The more that you miss someone who is no longer available, the more that you realize how fortunate you were to have had that person in the first place.

Just as “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,” so we should take a lesson from those who have gone before. God put them on this planet for us to learn from and become better people ourselves. It was only recently that Holy Angels Pastor, Father Mike blessed the marriage of Ace to Lindsey. Ace started out as an altar boy in this Church when it was under the guidance of Monsignor Walsh and Father Priebe. While in the Army, he continued to serve at masses. Today we are at a mass in honor of Ace’s life. Ace is now in heaven, once again assisting Monsignor Walsh. He will also be there for us (as he always has been) to help us forge our own path to become at the top of our own game.

During the Exodus, with divine guidance, the children of Israel were led out of bondage in Egypt across the barrier of the Red Sea into the promised land of freedom. Similarly, some day, under similar guidance, (like Ace) we ourselves will pass from the bonds of this mortal existence into the freedom of a higher realm.