Mom wrote this longer Memorial speech, a takeoff of the Memorial program, for Tom to say at the Memorial service. It was a nice speech and after Tom finished he invited others to share their own Terry stories. And a few people did share their colorful and funny Terry stories! Thank you for sharing!
Terry Memorial Speech
Terry was a character. Full of BS and he could tell a lot of stories. He worked hard, played hard, and in the last few years found out that he really liked going to the casino. Slot machines called his name. Although he never won a big jackpot, he was always excited and would punch out a slip if he won more the $20 and would brag about all the money he won, but he would always put it back in another machine.
He is survived by his wife of 40 years, Carole. She always had a “honey do list” for him. Some things got done quickly and others were done on “Terry Time”. But the fastest way to get him to do things was for Carole to get out the yellow pages and threaten to call someone, because then they would have to PAY someone. They went on a few trips together, but as Terry got older his driving got slower and as everyone knows, he was always late for everything. He grudgingly went to Hawaii, but slept all the way there. He only became excited about the trip when he found out that he going to be able to drive an open air convertible Jeep around an active volcano, which made the rest of the trip interesting. He also drove Carole and the girls out onto a glacier on their wild Alaska vacation and would stop every few minutes whenever he spied a wild animal.
He also lived in Alaska with his brother John. He liked living there because he could carry his gun with him, just in case of polar bear attacks. He made a lot of good friends and even helped with the famous whale rescue, by protecting all the media and tourist from polar bears and received a letter from President Regan. Alaska also allowed him to caribou hunt and in the other parts of Alaska fish for salmon. After 10 years he was offered a buyout and early retirement, with medical benefits. He took the buyout and always bragging that he got to retire at 47.
He was extremely proud of his twin girls, Melissa and Michelle. When Carole started working second shift he brought the 3 month old twins to see their mom. He never complained about feeding or changing diapers. He loved to brag about their trips to other countries, their education, their jobs, and their adventures. He also loved the family cat Che, whom he teased all the time, but then would buy him a bag of shrimp and sneak him a piece or two.
His favorite place to go was up north to the farm in Cloquet, where he was working on his parents’ house and he was always proud of the fact that he was able to put in a large bathroom for his mother. He later inherited the house when she passed on and always had a project going. Although, some projects never did get finished, as there was always a next time.
He loved to tease people. If you were teased that meant he really liked you. He would challenge people to eat more and say, that he had 2 or 3 plates of food. He loved people stopping by and would drag them downstairs to his Alaska man cave, or out to see his sauna. He sent home all kinds of things from Alaska and made the post office crazy. One time he sent home an anchor that weighed 69 ½ pounds, the limit was 70. All there was on it was a label with an address.
He was a coupon and sales fanatic. If there was a good deal, he would buy it, take it out to the car, go back in and buy more sometimes make 3 or 4 trips out to the car. He also liked to make his infamous split pea soup, his “goulash” which non-Terry people called spaghetti with peas and in recent years took to making an apple pie or cranberries on the holidays.
He loved it when little kids came over, especially Louisa and Julian, and he would pay them a dollar to pick up sticks in the yard. He had plans to teach both of them how to fix and build stuff. When they came over he would run to the bread drawer looking for treats to give them. One time he brought giant marshmallows and couldn’t wait for them to come over, so that he could share with them.
He had so many friends and each one could tell you a crazy story about him and their adventures with him. He will be greatly missed by Carole, Melissa, Michelle, and Che and all his extended family and friends. Please share any and all stories you have about Terry.