Purple Angel Notes

My sister, Tina Baroni Turner, stayed with me the night Kevin passed. And the next day while I was at an appointment, she placed purple post-it notes throughout the home. I discovered them over course of many days!

1. In my slipper: “Smile”
2. On Moving Sand Art: “You’re not moving on…you are moving forward”.
3. Green Bathroom: “Life goes on…just as it was planned.”
4. Linen Closet: “ At least you can put the sheets on how your like!”
5. Inside garbage can lid: “You may never get over it, but, you will get through it.”
6. Basement door: “You are a survivor and always will be.”
7. Pink Bathroom Mirror: “There will be lots of happy days ahead.”
8. Family Room window: “Enjoy the view and find peace.”
9. Inside Refrigerator: “At lease there is no banana milk!”
10. Coffee pot: “Take all the time you need.”
11. Laptop: “It will be OK—just you wait and see!” (our mom’s saying)
12. Kevin’s file folder: “Take one file at a time.”
13. Inside kitchen cupboard: “Smile”
14. My closet: “Remember always you are loved.”
15. Kevin’s bedroom drawer: “You don’t have to go through this all at once.”
16. 16. Outside Swing: “Enjoy the quiet—but don’t get lost in it.”

Fencing Items: used in college and again most recently @ Schoolcraft. In 2024, he died literally by the sword and was able to come back and share the story!

Wooden Shoes: from 1st European River Cruise: Our first and only river cruise. Holland and those wooden shoes. I convinced him to buy these rather than ones for his feet!

Harmonica: He played beautifully at our wedding.

Glass objects: Just a sampling of those quirky things he would collect that are now all over the home.

Cigars: Occasionally indulged on the golf course, when working on Hale property, or intensely putting “something” together. Feel free to indulge—so many more at home!!!

Leather: Kevin has made numerous leather items. These are couple of samples.

Electric Stuff: Books, gadgets drawings. His latest project was to build a ham radio transmitter. So many boxes with items have come to the house in the last couple weeks. Like Christmas

Caps: Kevin has as many as many women have shoes. And, he manages to wear them all! Ties into the British and Celtic in him.

Laissez les Bons Temps Rouler: He could not have the English version: Let the Good times Roll, of course not! From one of many trips to New Orleans.

A Blessing for the Brokenhearted

By Jan Richardson

Let us agree for now that we will not say the breaking

makes us stronger or that it is better to have this pain

than to have done without this love.

Let us promise we will not tell ourselves time will heal the wound,

when every day our waking opens anew.

Perhaps for now it can be enough to simply marvel

at the mystery of how a heat so broken can go on beating,

as of it were made for precisely this—

as if it knows the only cure for love is more of it,

as if it sees the heart’s sole remedy for breaking is to love still,

as if it trusts that its own persistence pulse is the rhythm

of a blessing we cannot begin to fathom but will save us nonetheless.

There Is No Remedy For Love, But To Love More.

By Henry David Thoreau

After I’m Gone

Sung by Michael Bennett; Written by Mark Draijer

When the chair stays empty and the house don’t make a sound

When the morning light comes in and I’m no longer around,

Don’t let the silence tell you that I have disappeared

I’ve only stepped beyond the reach of what we measure here.

After I’m gone

Don’t fold away my name Love doesn’t end in earth and stone it doesn’t fade with flame.

After I’m gone

Listen close at dawn every beam of morning light says I’m not gone.

You’ll find me in the hallway where the pictures hang in line

In the way the kettle whistles right around suppertime

In the garden when it blossoms

In the rain against the pane.

In the quiet understanding that we will meet again.

After I’m gone

Don’t say it was the end, the road just bends beyond your side and meets itself again.

After I’m gone

Carry on, be strong.

I’ll be the steady whisper version you alone

I am not the body that lies beneath the stone, I am every prayer we pray when we felt alone

After I ‘m gone

Life your life above, there’s more to us than borrowed breath

Her’s more to us than dust.

After I’ m gone

You won’t be alone. When mercy opens wide its gate

I still belong

I still belong

Another version: song by him and wife

When my chair sits empty by the table, and the coffee’s getting cold

Don’t let the silence fool your heart and make the story old.

And my jacket’s in the hallway like I walked outside for air,

Hold it close against your chest, I’m still somewhere in there.

If the nights grow long and restless and the house feels twice as wide,

Close your eyes and breathe me in I’m the wind outside.

Every laugh we left behind us, every tear we let it show,

Are little light in heaven still burning soft and low.

After I am gone, don’t let your heart turn gray

Love was never meant to die Just because we fade away.

Heaven keeps the promises This world can’t always save.

Love don’t end in heaven It just learns another way.

Don’t remember me for leaving, remember how I stayed

Every road I walked beside you, every choice I made.

Measure life in quiet moments in the hands we used to hold,

In the nights we fought the darkness and refused to let it win our souls.

If the world feels cold and heavy like the sky forgot the sun,

Listen close between the heartbeats, you’ll hear I’m not gone.

Faith is just a whisper in the silence of the soul,

And Love is just God’s promise that we are never left alone.

If tears fall down your face tonight I’ll be there in every one

And every prayer you send above will find where I’ve become.

The same love that made the stars, still lives in me and you

And time can’t steal a single thing that love has made come true.

After I’m gone, Live louder than before. Be Braver than my broken fears

Stronger than my war. And when your day is fading and the sky turns cold and gray,

Don’t be afraid to close your eyes, I’ll be waiting

Somewhere past the silence, Somewhere past the pain, Love will wake us both again

After I’m gone Live louder than before, be braver than my broken fears, and stronger than my war.

Celebration of Kevin’s Life Celebration

Close to 3pm

1. Ray Maj initiates the ceremony

     a. by asking guests to take a seat and

     b. stating the fencing team (Michael Byrd coordinator) will honor Kevin with a Sword Salute

     c. Please stand

2. Fencing team will do the salute

3. Guest may sit down

4. Arthur Kuhn will play bagpipes, when finished

5. Ray Maj introduces himself and shares his role in this ceremony.

6. Ray acknowledges the Bagpiper as Arthur Kuhn, one of Kevin’s closest friends.

7. Ray then shares his thoughts/read poem/ etc.

8. Ray invites me to podium to give my Eulogy.

9. After I sit down, Ray will invite others to share stories and memories (at podium or using the microphone from their seats.

     a. Allowing sons, Jon and James and their wives, Nancy and Tifany, respectively to speak before other guests (of course they can add more at  another time)

     b. Invite others to share

10. When all stories and memories are exhausted, Ray introduces Paul Brohl, a good friend of Beverly and Kevin, to play his guitar

11. Paul plays couple of songs on guitar--ending with ones that people can sing along

12. Ray thanks guests for sharing being a part of today’s Celebration of Kevin’s Life.

13. Depending on how long this has taken, Ray

     a. If close to 4:40, invites others to say final goodbyes and states that Arthur will give tribute to Kevin’s life by playing the bagpipes one last time for him around 5pm.

     b. If not close to 4:40, inform guests that open viewing will continue until around 4:50, when Arthur will give tribute to Kevin’s life by playing the bagpipes one last time for him, around 5pm

14. Between 4:50 and 5pm; Arthur begins his final bagpipe tribute to Kevin.