Touched By A Hiker

I experienced an odd phenomenon this past week. Why did the news about a hiker who was lost in the Rocky Mountains affect me? I remember thinking how sad it must be to start your day doing something you enjoy and then getting lost. In the news I followed the search for the man and read about the many searches by many different groups looking for him. I prayed that he would be found. Surely, if he was an experienced hiker he would know how to survive in our rugged mountains. I was told he was a parishioner of Spirit of Christ Catholic Community in Arvada. I looked up his picture in the church directory and I did not know him.  I had never seen him at any of the functions I attended, yet I continued to follow the news daily.

When I heard that his body had been found it saddened me. I thought about his family and how horrible it must have been when they found out that his body had been located. On Sunday, September 13, 2015, a young man spoke about a friend of his who was very spiritual and when his friend spoke at his Small Church Community group, everyone was touched and moved.  "This spiritual person was the hiker that died in the mountains."

At his rosary on September 17, 2015, I heard people get up and eulogize the hiker. A story told by another friend was how they would walk their dogs in the park. One day the friend said he saw his friend picking up trash in the park. "That's the kind of guy he was, working to keep the park clean." Where he worked, he
was praised about being a diligent worker and that he did more than he was asked to do." A Knights of Columbus man mentioned how "if something needed to be done, he would do it. Many a time he would be washing pots and pans in the kitchen after a large dinner. No job was too small or too big for him." His family was awarded the Knight's Family of the Month award.

Today, at the funeral mass, the church had many beautiful bouquets of flowers and a violinist played in the background. The singing, the priests and deacon in white, and the church filled with family, friends, fellow workers, and groups that had gotten to know him filled the church. Small Church Communities, Knights of Columbus, The Mass Is You (TMIY) were present at his mass. I noticed  that no one was wearing sneakers; everyone seemed to be wearing dress shoes.  Men in suits and ties, women in heels and dresses and when I commented to someone that I had never seen so many dressed up persons in church, I was told, "It's the age difference, today is a younger group and many of our funerals are for older persons."

When the young daughter go up to talk about her father, everyone was wiping their eyes and blowing their nose. She mentioned how he was learning Spanish and that he had learned to play the piano. "He loved learning and doing." I had never been to a funeral without a casket and was surprised to see the small wooden box with his ashes in front of the altar. Even though I did not know the man, in listening to how devoted he was to family, church, friends, work and how he had a sense of humor, how he never met a person he didn't like, how spiritual he was and how he loved life, made me think that I would like to be like him. Strange, that in death, this man had sent me a message.