My Two Best Friends

Viewed: 2184

Posted by: Steve Hardwick
Date: Jul 24 2021 2:19 PM

Today, July 24th, I placed this beautiful floral arrangement in the arms of Angel Of Hope to remember my best friend Gordy Hardy who was called to Heaven on this day 48 years ago.

A Day I Have Never Forgotten..A Day I Will Never Forget

Sadly, 48 years later on the very same day, July 24th, my best friend Sam Hathcock was laid to rest.

Their final resting place both in Memory Hill.

My 2 Best friends both now in Heaven

Gordy’s death was one of the reasons I did the Angel Of Hope Statue and Sam often told me how proud he was of me for doing it.

I never would have imagined that one day I would be placing flowers at the Angel Of Hope for my two best friends.

I’ve shed a lot of tears since Sam was called to Heaven a year ago..Often you hear these words...”TIME HEALS ALL WOUNDS”...

To that I say..bull crap!! I miss my friends as much today as I did the very first day they were gone.

Helpful Hint...please never tell a parent who has lost a child that time heals all wounds .

The day Gordy passed away I saw his parents at his house in Cloverdale subdivision. Many of Gordy’s friends stopped by to tell his parents how sorry they were. We were all 15 years old then...we really didn’t know what to say..or how to feel.

For the most of us it was our very first experience of losing someone close to us....and little did we know because of the innocence of youth...that losing someone close to us was just beginning.

45 years after Gordy’s death a feeble elderly man with a cane walked into my office. I knew right away who he was even though I hadn’t see him in 45 years...It was Gordy’s father...Earl Hardy.

He sat down in front of my desk and handed me a donation for the Angel Of Hope statue.

You have no idea how much that meant to me...Gordy’s dad 45 years later sitting down right in front of me at my office to tell me how much the Angel Of Hope and remembering his only child on his birthday meant to him.

Yes tears started rolling down my eyes... I got up and just hugged him... the same hug I gave him and his wife 45 years earlier in front of the Hardy’s sofa in their small living room.

Mr. Hardy and I saw one another a few more times when he would stop by my office just to say hello.

On January 17, 2021 while I was home fighting for my own life ( Covid Double Pneumonia), Earl Hardy died at SEAMC. During that time hospitals were not allowing visitors. I don’t know if he was all alone in the hospital when he passed away...sadly he probably was...if I could have had one wish come true on that day...it would have been to hug GORDYS DAD one last time and tell him that...I LOVE HIM.. I do love him...I’m so thankful that he came to my office that very first time and I got to hug him and hugged him several more times after before he was reunited with his only child that he loved and missed so much.

Gordy 48 years later and you have never been forgotten.
Always Loved
always Missed

Sam, Gordy and Mr. Hardy ...
I love y’all very much

Gordy and Sam...Thank you so much for being my best friends
-Steve Hardwick

<- back