Cleve

 https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/peoria-il/cleve-klopfenstein-10858122

Daily Gratitude Year 10- Day 205: Today, I am grateful for Cleve.

When you leave home and plant roots in a new place, God sends special people to tend your garden. This guy... we meet through my days at Peoria Alternative High School... is one of those people.

The things I learned watching him and listening to him will be a part of me until we meet again in Heaven. He and Kathleen set the bar high for a Christian marriage. His love for his wife and family were second only to his love for Christ.

I was 22 or 23 when we first met. When I was a new mom at 25, he seemed to exhale wisdom. When I was unsure, he was like a big brother more than a co-worker. His honesty, generous spirit and integrity imprinted a bit of Jesus on all who knew him.

The girls at work would call him "Your Cleve" because they knew how dear he was to my heart. When I first accepted the counseling position at Peoria Alternative High School, they had no room for me. Cleve generously shared his space. I missed him when they found office space for me the next year. We had so many conversations about students, raising kids, life, family and of course... our faith.

Since Cleve couldn't bring his Kathleen to work... the love of his life... he would bring her recipes (upon request). I have some in my recipe box. Handwritten reminders of their love, marriage and partnership.

Cleve invited Randy and I to bring Chase out to fish in his precious Cabin and the lake when Chase was little. Cleve was as tickled as Chase when he caught a fish. I knew he would be an amazing Grandpa when he reached that season in life... and he was.

Cleve would send handwritten notes at Christmas that often included old photos from our PAHS days. So many good times with the students and staff we loved captured in those images. I didn't get Christmas cards sent last year, but I kept his note on my desk to "write a handwritten note" when I had a chance. That note... sadly... was never written. We never got the chance to share a meal and his scrapbooks like we talked about doing the last time we were together.

This verse, in the KJV I know he knew well, sums up the way Cleve lived out his days.

"Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer." -Psalm 19:14

I am grateful for his life that was well lived. I am grateful for the example, the light and the love. He has heard "Well done, good and faithful servant."

Today, I am grateful for Cleve.