While I was in Vail with Sons Of Nothing last weekend, a couple shocking and unfortunate events transpired back home.

First, on Friday, 18 June, Ed Armstrong, Vice President, Engineering and Shared Services of Sorenson Communications--Christine's boss's boss--passed away in the hospital after dealing with painful surgery complications for over two weeks.

Everyone at Sorenson Communications was stunned. Just a couple days before, it looked like Ed was out of the woods and would be making a recovery, but then it was discovered he had some serious damage to his liver for one reason or another. One thing led to another and Ed had made his wishes that no extraordinary measures were to be taken to keep him alive.

Ed Armstrong was 46 years old.

On Saturday, 19 June, Mistee Brallier, an executive assistant at Sorenson, was killed when a semi plowed into her car along with others on Interstate 80 in the Salt Lake valley.

Mistee Brallier was 35 years old. Her 16-year old daughter was also involved in the crash and was hospitalized with very serious injuries and may be paralyzed.

Double-tragedy for a pretty tight-knit group of tech-workers at Sorenson.

Christine was pretty disturbed by it all. She's only worked at Sorenson for about four months, but during that time had come to admire Ed Armstrong and was seriously considering transferring from quality assurance to engineering with Ed's support.

After Ed died, Christine found out he was also an LDS bishop in his home ward in American Fork. During a brief visit to the hospital, Ed had bore his testimony to Christine and others who had come to visit him.

So, like I said, she was pretty disturbed by what had come to pass.

On Saturday, Christine and I attended Ed's funeral at the church building in American Fork where he had served as bishop. The chapel and cultural hall were packed with people who had come to be a part of the funeral and pay last respects.

Speakers at Ed's funeral spoke about his zeal and passion for everything he had done. People who didn't know Ed very well (like me) found out all kinds of amazing things about Ed. He had converted to LDS when he was a young boy; He had lived in California until about 15 years ago; He had taken in two boys (now 23) his son's age, sent them on missions, and otherwise raised them as his own children; He was singer, guitarist, and co-founder of a rock group--Crossroads--that had performed around the Salt Lake area since 1999.

On 28 May, about three weeks before Ed died, the band played at Jordan Landing in West Jordan. Christine and I took our kids to see some of the show. I remember seeing a woman taking lots of pictures of the band as they played. I'm sure nobody had any clue that evening would be the final performance of Ed Armstrong.

At Saturday's funeral, one of the pictures taken that day had been enlarged and was on display. It's a fantastic picture and I was really taken back by it. I was pleased to find it on Crossroads' website so I could share it here.

Ed Armstrong on 28 May 2005

Most of the funeral speakers spoke a lot about his work as bishop. Of course, it seems like, with the exception of Ed's son David, all the speakers were men who had worked with Ed in some kind of ecclesiastical capacity. Christine and I were just amazed with how much responsibility Ed had taken on for himself and he seemed to excel at it all.

Good funerals always make you think--they make you ponder your own life. Ed's funeral was clearly inspiring for he was a man almost anyone could look up to. I mean, if I could be half as organized as Ed was- I could do so much more with my time. If I had half the faith in the gospel Ed had, I could be a much better member of my church, father, husband, etc.

One thing that popped into my head that I mentioned to Christine as we were driving home afterward was that when I was a child, I was very easily frustrated and felt hopeless a lot. I remember people advising me that determination, hard work, perseverance, etc. were keys to success, but it wasn't information I was able to grasp.

I remember--though I don't recall exactly when it was or what it was--accomplishing something that was outstanding for me and realizing later that it was the direct result of determination and perseverance on my part. I was astounded to discover that what I had been told for so long was actually true!

My self-confidence began to inch upwards as a result of that realization.

I don't know exactly why this popped into my head as a result of attending Ed's funeral, but it did.