December
2014
I
have wanted to write about the members of my family. Why am I doing this? Many reasons, #1 so when I am in my nursing
home bed maybe a family member can read these writings to me until I fall
asleep to dream of the days gone by and the memories that I can no longer
remember. #2 As the years go by my
memories are getting mixed up. Just
recently I was telling a friend that my first date with Pat was to a Three Dog
Night concert at the Civic. Later when
sharing with Pat, he informed me that it was the Guess Who concert at the Music
Hall not the Civic. Two memories
wrong! #3 Trying to exercise my brain by
writing, not like a friend of mine is doing.
She is taking a history class and an algebra class and had to get her
homework done that day. Ok I would enjoy
the history. I did love learning and
teaching history. I enjoy 0205listening
to historical novels or watching historical movies. I would hate taking an advanced algebra
class. Took it in college and taught
algebra (pre not advanced). I can find
better mind building activities than working on algebra pre or advanced, such
as Scrabble on my I pad with Pat or the grandkids. #4
Writing for the grandkids, so they will know about their mom’s side of
the family. #5 Can’t remember?
David Richard Bedrosky March
12,1955-December 5,2012
Dear
Grandkids,
This is my memories of your Great Uncle
David, my brother. When he was sick and
in the hospital, we were praying for David.
Katelyn reminded me that David was the “funny one.” He sure was.
He had a great and at times strange sense of humor. I remember the times in Missouri when eating
out that David would give the waitress such a hard funny time. This got his daughter Theresa embarrassed and
we were all laughing. He will be
remembered as the funny one along with other memories.
David Richard Bedrosky was born in Omaha
on March 12, 1955 to Richard Charles Bedrosky (3-18-29 to 9-11-97) and Deloris
Helen Bussell Bedrosky (1-14-30 to 2-12-14).
He was their third child. David
had two older sisters, Rene (7-1-52) and Nannette (3-9-54) and Gary (2-6-56) a
younger brother. He lived in the
neighborhood of 48th and A in a house that his father built. The kids bedrooms were never painted due to
the fact that the Bedrosky kids were allowed to draw and decorate the
walls. We moved to 1403 Elm when David
was in Kindergarten. This was in the
area of the zoo and stadium. He attended
St. Patrick’s grade school. He was held
back to repeat a lower grade, so the rest of his school years he had his
brother Gary in his class. He attended
South High.
David had a great childhood growing up on
Elm St. It was a dead end street with
only a few neighbors, and a huge hollow behind our house until they began to
fill in the hollow with old buildings, bridges, and people used it as a dump
that we would explore and find things.
We all built forts, ice skated, played games, climbed trees, and other
kid things. David and Gary had guns and
would go off and shoot rats and probably other animals and birds. I remember getting shot in the butt with a BB
as I was walking up our street. Not sure
who did the shooting. On Sundays our
parents would send up off to mass at St. Patricks. Our parents only went to church for weddings
and funerals. We were required to attend
mass. David and Gary never made it to
mass. They were off hunting, fishing,
and exploring, or hanging out with friends.
It was the one time that all the kids were out of the house on a non
school day.
As
David got older he did more fishing, took up riding motorized dirt bikes down
by the river. School was not easy for
David, he would rather work with his hands building something. He learned a lot of the building trade from
his father who did it for a living.
David and Gary build tree houses and forts. I remember a fire starting in one of those
forts and a huge grass fire was started by one of them playing with matches or
fireworks. David had a thing about
fires. His job was to take the trash
out. He loved that job, since trash
could be burned in a huge barrel. He
loved getting a big roaring fire going and then throw in an aerosol can to blow
up. He built go carts and skateboards
back in the day. We did not have a lot
of money, so things were not bought but built. Our walls were covered with mom’s art work,
and the house was rebuilt and remodeled.
When we first moved it the first thing our dad did was built us a
bathroom. It had an outhouse. We all slept in the same bedroom until he got
around and remodeled other rooms. I
remember I slept on a lawn chair because I refused to share a bed with my
siblings. Maybe that is why I have back problems?
We
were not poor since we had food and clothing. Not too many grade school clothes
were needed since we wore uniforms. We
always had money to go to the candy store to buy candy. We had two candy/toy stores within walking
distance and even could walk to a bakery.
We walked or took buses back then. I think some of our spending money
came from our grandma Em or Great Aunt Marie (Auntie). They both lived within walking distance. We ate really well on Saturdays since that was
baking and cooking day for our Grandma Em.
When it was David’s turn to walk and pickup the food from Grandma Em, I
am sure he ate what he wanted from the bags or stopped off at friend’s houses
to share a cookie or two.
I think David probably built his bike
from bike parts. Our dad was a hoarder
(mom too) so we had lots of building supplies around to use, or a trip was made
to the dump behind us to find what was needed for a project. David later on
would go to work with his dad and help him at job sites being that extra pair
of hands.
Another thing that David got from our
father was the love of birds. Our dad
had a huge pigeon pen in the back yard and raised show pigeons. David had a love for parakeets. He had a few that would fly around the house,
at times they would escape to enjoy the outdoors. David would then try and call them done out
of the trees. Once Nan killed one of his
birds by accident, she closed the door on one so it would not fly out. We also grew up with pet rabbits, dogs, even
a squirrel that lived on the back porch.
We also had those little house creatures like gerbils and hamsters that
would get out of their cages to never be found again until the smell became
overwhelming. David even trained one of
those critters to do some kind of a trick.
He had a dog Rolly that was Nan’s but soon became David’s. Rolly followed David around the neighborhood. David liked the big dogs and for years he had
Junior one of his favorites.
David married the love of his life on
3-18-78. He had been friends with Dee De
(Catherine) and hung out with her brothers.
It was no surprise that he was marrying DeeDe. They lived for a while upstairs in the house
on Elm St. Then they bought a house on
14th and Pasadena a block from the stadium. They soon had a daughter Theresa that he
loved dearly. She was daddy’s little
blond sweetheart. David was an over the
road truck driver for most of his working life.
It was hard for David to leave his family, but someone has to move our
products and things we buy. He seemed to
enjoy driving and seeing the United States.
After he was no longer able to drive due to painful arthritis and the
drugs for pain, he would talk about the different interstates and places that
he made trips and deliveries to. He and
Nan would visit our mom every Sunday when they could. David had a love for sea food like crab legs
and shrimp. He would bring crab legs or
shrimp along with sweets for mom to snack on.
She loved his visits. She had
such a bond with David. On the morning
of his death, she was out of control and would not stop crying per the nursing
staff. The nursing staff could not get
her settled down and she would not say what was wrong. At that time she had not been told that David
had died. She knew he was sick with
cancer. We came up to tell her and she
handled it better than we did. I think
she knew he had died that morning and needed to be strong for her
children. I was very concerned that she
would not understand and/or deal with his death. She chose not to go to his funeral due to the
difficulties of going out.
Mother could
get David to do anything for her along with lending her money. Once after I had just giving her money, she
asked David with tears in her eyes for money.
He handed her some cash and she turned around and smiled at me. She had David wrapped around her little
finger as the old saying goes. She never
paid him back, since she never ever paid me back. David did not mind helping her out. I learned to take paintings in trade for the
money that I loaned her. I have a huge
collection of her art work but over paid for most of them.
When he was ill, we would stop by after
visiting mom to share with him on how she was doing, since he could no longer
visit her. We would sit and talk about a
variety of subjects plus along with the memories that we had and shared. I learned that dad started the dump on fire
because he was so sick of it. It burned
for years under ground. On that land off
of 13th by the zoo there is now a motel and McDonalds along with
other businesses all built on top of a landfill/dump, our childhood playground.
David enjoyed spending time at Auntie and
Great Uncle Charlie’s cabin along the Platte River by Hanson Lake. He and Gary and friends would party at the
cabin along with fishing. David and
DeeDe took good care of Auntie as she aged.
They did her grocery shopping and other things that she needed
done. David also took good care of
DeeDe’s siblings when they need a place to stay. David gained a son-in-law when Theresa
married Sean Soucy. David talked about
being Sean’s roady for his band that he was in.
Some dads would be sad that they were losing their only daughter, but
not David since he was gaining a son that he always wanted. David was so happy on her wedding day and
enjoyed the celebration. Yes, he liked
to party and be around family and friends.
A wedding of your only child is a special event.
I am running out of memories of
David. Since I was the oldest and spent
my time working, hanging out with Pat, and then moving away in 74. I am not going to pretend that we were really
close and I knew a lot about his life. I
am going to have to have his family write their memories of David for later
generations or current ones.
Grandkids, I will have this in your
binder to read when older. Others who may be reading this, it may encourage you
to write down your memories of your loved ones before you forget those
memories. Trust me, you will later get
memories mixed around or just forget.
Plus you may need something to read while lying in your nursing home
bed. I type and print out my writings in
a big font, so if I am able to read in my later years because the font will be
big enough. Just something to think
about…
Still can’t believe that David has been
gone for two years. I still continue to
pray for family members especially his wife and daughter as they go on without
him. Sure they have their memories along
with pictures of the brother that I loved and are greatly missed. But it is not the same. One has to trust that the Lord Jesus Christ
is in control; He gives life 3-9-55 and takes it away 12-5-12. Through my tears, I need to thank the Lord
for giving me David Richard Bedrosky as my brother, along with my other family
members. Love bears all things, believes
all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 1 Corinthians 13:7.
