It is with great sadness that one of our own has passed away. Ernie Richardson passed on December 7th, 2016, just two days ago.
He has been sparse here on The Patriot Woodworker the last few months, but I have been in contact with him via email and Facebook messaging. He never gave any indication that he was heading towards this life event, although he did seem a bit down, and just kind of not feeling well in spirit.
Ernie faced a lifetime of disability. Ernie Richardson was a good man, even with his disability challenges, he focused outward towards helping others, instead of focusing on his own challenges. He loved working in an organization called Bugles Across America and he was a bugler for funeral services of our veterans.
Ernie also counted on his best friend Ruby, his service dog. Ernie loved that dog dearly.
Ernie loved coming on here and sharing his work and shop. He received a scroll saw he was very proud of. As a matter of fact we were very proud of that scroll saw too, our Patriot Woodworker's came together, and purchased that saw for Ernie. His shop was small, but he had a blast in it. Ernie loved to make pens for his friends and family and he gave them to veterans as well.
I will miss the fact that Ernie is not with us anymore, I wish I could be in contact more with many of our folks here in The Patriot Woodworker community, I wish I could live near many of you, to visit, and just drop in from time to time and say howdy, I wish I could have met Ernie in person, and let him know that I personally appreciated his huge efforts with our veterans, and his presence here. He sometimes felt like he was in the way around here, he felt at times like he was asking too many questions or he was being a burden on us because he sometimes had difficulty navigating the site. It could not have been further from the truth, we loved him here, and we jumped in when we could to give Ernie a hand up. Ernie, nor anyone is ever a burden here, never. I hope Ernie understood that.
Another thing about Ernie, he always regretted not serving our country, frequently he would remind us of that, but he always said, that he hoped by playing "Taps" for our fallen and naturally deceased veterans, that he could somehow make up for what he could not do in service. I remember many of us always shot back to Ernie "Hey sir, you're doing a grand thing by playing that bugle, don't ever feel like you did not do your part for our nation!"
Right now I have no doubt Ernie is blowing into that bugle in Heaven and playing side by side with the Angels. And he is standing at the gates, welcoming all our military souls as they cross in.
I have one last thing to say, well done Ernie Richardson, well done sir!
We installed this memorial page for Ernie in our Veterans Forum, because he earned it!
Ernie's organization
Ernie's Gallery
Reach out to our elderly, reach out to friends, reach out to our veterans, repair a fence for someone who cannot, be there for your neighbor.
- 0 comments
- 798 views
-
.thumb.jpg.573d1497d0675219908c85aabefd797a.jpg)
John Morris
