Article Contributed on: 12/4/2006 8:01:28 PM
Lillian and I met when we were very young, working at a small cafe at 46th and York St. We became fast friends.
Leo came to work at the service station attached to the cafe. He and Lillian fell in love about the same time I met
Bob. We married about the same time and Bob and Leo liked each other very much, too.
Leo was very funny. One time, he bought a motorcycle with a side car and naturally we all wanted to go for a ride. They hadtwo small children by this time, so that would meansix people on this one motorcycle. Leo called the Aurora police department to ask if this would be legal. Well, the policeman replied, "It may be legal, but I wouldn't suggest it."
We all piled on it and went riding down Colfax Ave. in Aurora. The looks on people's faces were funny and we were having a ball until a policeman pulled us over. Leo tried to explain that he had asked about it but the policeman did not think it was funny at all and made us go home!
When we were first married, a lot of famous preachers would come to Denver and set up huge tents or use auditoriums to hold evangelistic meetings. Bob and I loved to go and would drag Lillian and Leo along, not willingly. Leo said that they would always try to drag him down to the altar to be prayed for. I suggested that if he would sing the invitational song, they would pick someone else, so he agreed to go again. Sure enough! Someone started right for him, so I poked him and said, "Sing, Leo, sing." He told me he had forgotten the words! We couldn't stop giggling and had to leave.
The words of the evangelists did sink in, though, and they became Christians also. We had lots of fun times but lost contact after our children started taking more of our time, but we never forgot them.
Lillian and Leo came to Bob's funeral on Sept. 1, 2005. How thrilled I was to see them again and get together later, talk over old times and catch up on our families.
Lillian and I went to lunch one day and she told me she had been diagnosed with lung cancer that had spread to her pancreas. What horrible news! We were able to do lunch one more time. She died right before Thanksgiving. How I miss her, but how happy I am that I will see her again in heaven.
God, stay close to Leo.