I hate doing this — writing these memorials — but I guess it goes with the territory when you are in your mid-80s. However, I feel it is an honor and privilege to be able to do so for my lifelong friends.

I met Dick Byers 69 years ago, the day we entered first grade. Over the years, we did many things together, including Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, Key Club, church and Teen Canteen Committee. We also sang in the church choir — Dick sang, I tried to.

After high school, we went our separate ways. He went to Babson College and I went into the Navy. But we kept in contact.

I will tell one tale of what I think friends are for. We were about 19. I had been at sea most of the winter, so the tires on my 1955 Ford weren’t very good. I had met this new girl from Ashland. We were at a dance in Ashland and decided to take a ride. We drove to the far end of the Ashland Reservoir and talked, not paying attention to the weather. When we decided to head home, I turned on the lights to find it snowing hard. Both ways out of the area were uphill. We were stuck. We walked about 1 1/2 miles to her home on West Union Street. It was about 1 a.m. Who to call? I decided to call Dick for a ride home. He came with his father’s car and took us back to my car. He had one tire chain. We put it on my car, although neither one of us had ever put on a chain. He pushed my car with his car (bumpers were made better then) and we got up the hill. I arrived home at about 2:30 a.m. That is a true friend.

Over the years, Dick became an executive in the insurance industry and I became a firefighter, and we always kept in contact. In his 50s, Dick became very ill — so ill, in fact, that he had to retire. He ended up in a wheelchair. He did research on his illness and had the doctors recheck for Lyme disease. He tested positive for Lyme, despite living in an apartment in New York City! Come to find out, a couple of years earlier, a friend with a dog visited. The dog had been on the sofa and must have left behind a tick that infested Dick.

Move forward to about 30 years ago, and Dick was living in Daytona Beach. I visited him for a week in his brand-new, stand-alone condo. Over the next few years, my wife and I wintered in Melbourne Beach and visited often. About 15 years ago, Dick stopped driving long distances, so we would drive to Daytona Beach and meet Dick with another classmate and his wife, and all five of us would have a nice visit.

Dick and I talked on the phone three or four times a year until about a year ago. Dick became ill again, spending time in the hospital several times. He finally had to give up his condo and move in with his son. On the Friday before Father’s Day, I got a call from his sister. Dick had had a massive stroke. He was in the hospital and would be going to hospice care. I got the call on Father’s Day that Dick had passed away that morning.

Richard Aubrey Byers was born on Aug. 16, 1941, the son of Charles and Hazel Byers. He leaves his son, Todd, his sister, Susan, and his former wife, Joyce.

Goodbye to another lifelong friend. You will be missed.