Love lives on...

Our family is made up of many wonderful people.... This week we lost one who was especially dear to us all, Nevada Chapman.

Nevada was married to my husbands sister Brenda for 50 years. He was a father, grandfather, uncle. He was a businessman, a storyteller, a man of deep faith and famous for his talent in the kitchen. He was free with jokes and teasing and passing out folded up cash to visiting children.

My fondest memory of him, perhaps, is from an evening spent watching Brenda and Nevada square dance. At this point they had been married 40 years or so. They both dressed up- him in western style clothes, her in a very fancy square dance outfit, complete with a full skirt and petticoats. I stood on the side lines and watched them dance. They were good at it... stepping lightly to the music and the calls. But what resonates in my mind to this day is the way he looked at her as they danced. This kind and gentle man gazed down on his "bride" as they floated across the floor, looking at her as if she were the rarest of treasures, the most beautiful of women. Seeing them that way was like catching a glimpse of what love looks like.

And though Nevada has left us, the love that he has lavished on those lucky enough to know him will live on.