Letter to the Editor: Tribute to columnist speaks to family

While reading your fine words about Dad, which gave me another opportunity for a good cry, I was so touched by what each (contributor) had to say. I don’t have the words to express how much writing this column meant to my dad all these years, but something he said shortly before he passed might hint at it. In his last days, he couldn’t string together many words to say what he felt, and he was limited to lying in bed or sitting in a chair, so he was understandably frustrated. He would ponder why he was still here and we, of course, couldn’t give him any satisfactory answers to his question, and at one point, he said, haltingly, “can’t even write the column.” He had quit mentioning other things that he could no longer do. The column was the last.

I have to thank you all, and especially Dianne Elizabeth Osis, for providing him with a forum all these years to speak his mind and give his opinions voice. Thank you also for such a fine send-off in last week’s paper, and we are supremely sorry that he did not get to read it. He told me recently that Dianne said that in the early days she might not know anything else that was certain to be in the paper, but she could always count on the Rusty Saber to come through. You all certainly came through for him. Thank you!

—Jill Bryant, Springfield