Angel at the Super Bowl

             Super Bowl Sunday is always a special event for me and my family.  At the forefront of this ultimate sports extravaganza, is the memory of our dear brother David.  He loved the Super Bowl.  As generous and hard-working as he was (coming to our rescue if we had a flat tire, electrical problem, illness, or ANY request), all time stopped on Super Bowl Sunday.  What makes Super Bowl Sunday so special for us is that David died on Super Bowl Sunday in 2005 after a heroic eighteen-month fight with cancer.  My sister Frances recalls that, as she and her husband were visiting with him just two nights before he died, David was already anticipating the Super Bowl and hoping that the New England Patriots would win.  As we were gathered at his bedside during his last hours, we coaxed him on to his heavenly journey, reminding him that he would have the “best seat in the house” to watch the game.  He died right before the start of the game.  The Patriots came through for him, 24-21, against the Philadelphia Eagles.

             I am certain that David journeyed to heaven by way of Jacksonville, Florida, so he could watch the Patriots’ victory.  After all, Pensacola is much closer to Jacksonville than Heaven and I can just hear David telling God, “First things, first!”  I know of this tenacity from my brother Steve and their working buddies as they share stories of their time working together on power plant startups in New York. Steve speaks of their travelling the subway systems in New York.  He paints a picture of David wearing “his Stetson black hat and handcuff on his belt and carrying a throw down wallet (an empty wallet he was prepared to throw down and run in case it looked like he was in imminent danger of being mugged) as we followed him through Penn Station and it was like the parting of the sea but he was always so polite: ‘How you doing?’ ‘Good Day!’  He was always smiling comfortably in his skin; he just was unafraid.” His license plate even reflected this spirit- NO GRIEF.

            The Patriots will be playing again in this year’s Super Bowl in Indianapolis.  My sister Lynn got “goosebumps” when she heard this.  Though I am not that much of a football fan, all time will stop for me and I will be watching this game. Why? Because I know Angel David will be there.  He has probably already convinced God of his need to be present for the Patriots and he most likely has successfully won permission to bring his mentor and good friend, Bob Libbey, my brother Kenny who followed him to heaven almost a year later, and any other heavenly Super Bowl buddies with him.  And I know all his New York buddies still here on earth, Robert, Walker, Bob, Rick, Mike, Blue, and Ken, will join him to cheer the Patriots on the road to victory.  I am sure there is one SUPER-DUPER tail-gaiting party already going on in heaven at this moment and throughout the night.

New York Work Crew:
left to right
Robert Frady, Walker Anderson, Dave Cohen, Steve Cohen, Bob Libbey, Rick Cotton,
Mike Owens, Blue Larry, Ken Orange

 Tune in tomorrow evening for

“rest of the story!”

“…but this one thing I do:

forgetting what lies behind and straining forward

to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal

for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.”  Phil. 3: 13-14

from Memorial Card

DAVID M. COHEN

February 6, 2005

“Grieve not…

nor speak of me with tears…

but laugh

and talk with me

as though I were beside you.

I loved you so…

‘twas Heaven

here with you.”

“You are most cordially invited

to join me at the Super Bowl

February 5, 2012.

 See ya’ll there!!!!

Love,

Dave