Like family...

For as long as I can remember Joe and Doris Kniffin have been family friends...as a little kid I remember them on Door County camping trips at Peninsula State Park , my dad and Joe leaving for Canada fishing trips--where they would come back with fishing tales and unshaven faces, sharing what seemed to be a gigantic, yellow boat with the name Strike 3, seeing them at church and family picnics. In later years--Doris and Joe would move to Door County to retire and lived about a mile from my parents--Farm Breakfasts were shared and beautiful sunset dinners on my parent's deck during our annual 4th of July vacation--even after we had kids and the dinners weren't so relaxed they would come to join our family or we would take our circus to their house.

Joe was a big guy but was as nice and down to earth as they get...he always had a funny story, a pipe and was one of the few people that while growing up I actually let call me Annie. There are some people that are such staples in your life...you may not see them for months/years at a time but time seems to stand still and you pick up right where you left off... you imagine that they will always be around--perhaps that is why I was taken by surprise when we got the news that Joe had passed this past Friday evening. Generally a trip to Door County would be anticipated with great excitement...tomorrow is the exception. Saying good bye is neither fun nor easy...Godspeed Joe.