Remembering A Dear Friend, A Great Neighbor

Carl J. Esch 1948-1981

This week marks the 40th anniversary of the passing of Carl Esch, one of the best friends and next door neighbors one could ever have. Carl  had been scheduled for surgery to repair a heart valve but died of a blood clot in the ICU at our local hospital at age 33, leaving his beloved wife Marilyn and three young children.

Unknown to most of us, Carl had felt led to go off his blood thinner and to simply trust fully in God's ability to heal him of his heart condition. Regrettably, it was not to be so, and I was privileged to be with him when he breathed his last, his heart still beating strongly to the very end while awaiting its ultimate healing in the care of the Great Physician.

Carl was devoted to his family and dedicated to our church, and we were privileged to have the Esch family as dear friends when we lived in the Zion Mennonite parsonage directly across the road from the church. While Carl provided for his family as a first rate auto mechanic, his life mission was one of being a full time servant of God and a wonderful father to his children.

I still mourn his loss as do all of his family and his many friends. And I still remember a group of us getting together with broken hearts to dig his grave in the Zion cemetery as a final way of showing our love for him and our profound sense of loss at his passing.

Here is a part of what I shared at his funeral service May 26, 1981:

Carl J. Esch, soldier of peace

At your death we salute you

You fought hard, against all odds

And you fought well, with the weapons of the Spirit

With the Word of God, precious and powerful in you

You waged a valiant and gentle war

To win, but never to destroy

To nurture you children, never to discourage them

To love your wife and family, never to lord it over them

To serve your church, never to neglect or leave it

Carl, warrior of faith

You taught us courage

You taught us to live life for all it's worth

You taught us to give God all we have

You taught us to live simply and to care deeply

And you were willing to risk more than most of us

While we stayed behind in safer places

You were on reconnaissance, testing the outer limits of faith

Carl, brother soldier, you were too young to die

How could any life be finished at 33

(Except in the service of Christ, who was able to say "It is finished" at that same age)

O brother, and dearer than a brother

May heaven reward you with its highest medals of honor

And may God grant us a deep well for our tears

Until we meet again