Special Friends

Today's post is going to be a little different as it is going to be mostly stories. I will post only a couple of pictures, so bear with me. This idea came to me as I was working with our pictures.

Shortly after we moved to Bakersfield, we had some new neighbors move into our development. And they turned out to be some of our dearest friends. Debbie was the Dean of the School of Education at Cal State Bakersfield and Lewis was a teacher in the San Fernando Valley (yes, he would commute every day). But they were much more than that. Debbie had her doctorate in education and Lewis was an ordained Baptist minister. Oh yeah, I failed to mention he was also a full blooded Cherokee Indian. In fact, Lewis was the first Indian minister to address the Baptist Convention. But I digress. Lewis and Debbie became somewhat of surrogate grandparents for Daryl and Amy, as we did not live close to their real grandparents and our kids really loved them.

There a numerous stories I could relate to you about our relationship and activities, but I want to share with you just a couple of them. Debbie and Lewis left Bakersfield first, returning to Fullerton where Debbie had been a professor at Cal-State Fullerton and they owned a condo. We then moved to the San Diego area and Lewis and I would get together to play golf. After our next move to Rochester, NY, we did not see them for a number of years until I started traveling for Kodak to do training. When I would be in L.A. training, I would make a point of visiting them in Fullerton. On one trip when Betty was with me, we went to dinner with them and I felt so out of place. Betty was using a cane to help her walk at that time, Debbie had a bad back and needed a cane, and I don't remember why Lewis needed a cane but he had one also. So we were able to park in the "gimp" space but I told them I was going to have to get a Red Cross to put on the side of the van I was driving.

When Debbie and Lewis returned to Fullerton, they also revitalized the Indian Baptist Church of Los Angeles. Lewis became the pastor and Debbie was very involved helping. In the late '90's, Lewis had a heart attack and was laid up for a number of months. When he was finally able to returned to preaching, the day of his first sermon back, Debbie couldn't go because of her back. After the service, Lewis was going to lunch with some parishioners when he had another massive heart attack and died.

On one of my prior visits, I had gone to see the Hancock's, and Lewis was giving me a hard time about a purchase he made. We both had similar taste's in movies and he knew one of my favorite movies was "Where Eagles Dare", and I wanted the tape of it. A VHS tape of that movie was very rare, but he had found one and wanted me to be envious of it, which I was. After he died, I went to see Debbie on my next trip and she had some things he had wanted me to have, but when she gave them to me, I asked if it was possible to get the movie tape. She said he had wanted me to have it but she had forgotten to put it in with the other items. She said she was getting things together but couldn't remember one item, which was the tape. I will tell you, that VHS tape of "Where Eagles Dare" has NEVER seen the inside of our vcr, as it is very special to me and I don't want to accidently ruin it. I have watch the movie many times as I have it on dvd.

I apologize for going on about Debbie and Lewis Hancock, but I wanted to share with you some very special people.

Dr. Debra Hancock

She will always be Debbie to us.


Lewis Hancock
A really true friend

By the way, I finished my work for "Uncle Sam" with time to spare, so you don't have to visit me in jail. I'm going to close for today as I have an appointment at 11:34 on the first tee. Again, thanks for allowing me to share the Hancocks with you