There is one comment that puts me into shock every time I hear it, “so and so died.” I opened a text message today and the words were “did you hear that Les died?” Les who? was my reply. I only know one Les and he is not ready to die. It got me down, and I don’t need anything else to be funky about. The dark days of November do me in every year. I sat on this for a while and then decided to call a fellow Lion who knew Les. Yes, he confirmed it, Les had a heart attack either late last night or early this morning.
Les was a member of the Frankfort Lions Club joining in 1979, and was president in the 1984-85 term, he loved the club. He was a stickler for the rules. He knew the Lions Club International Constitution by heart and could quote from it. At times this made him a royal pain in the ass because he would squelch some good ideas with his penchant for the rules, but he kept us honest and I liked him for that.
There are some people who lead very private lives and Les was one of them. Ask any of the long time Lions in our club if Les had kids and no one can answer. Did he have siblings? No one knows. He does (did) have a wife of many years who he adored. I saw them together in church most every Sunday, until Covid hit. Like all things related to Covid my relationship with Les stopped. I saw him again after mask mandates loosened and we were able to meet face to face again.
When I was president of the club I had to communicate the old fashioned way with Les. He refused to become computer literate and thus had no e-mail. He didn’t believe in electronic messaging. I wound up calling him or sending him post cards with announcements. We had sixty members and only four did not have e-mail. On a few occasions I forgot to send him a special message and he would remind me by explaining the value of keeping members informed by US mail. He also rubbed it in with “when I was president we always sent postal meeting reminders.”
I will miss Les and his obstinate ways. Even though I hated to hear his comments and arguments he always succeeded in giving me a lesson in leadership.
Filed under: Aging, Biography, Lions Club, Warm and Fuzzy | Tagged: Eulogy, Les Egbert | Leave a comment »
