Ron Higgins remembered
In the last 16 years that the St. Johns Independent has been published we have had a chance to make a lot of new friends, but we also managed to reconnect with any number of old friends too. Classmate Ron Higgins was one of them.
Those of us who have attained a certain age know that there is something special about friends of long-standing. You may not have seen one another in the flesh for 30 years, but you can begin talking as though you had spoken together only yesterday. They remember the old stories you thought no one else on earth knew anymore. They are the ones with whom you can begin a sentence, and they can finish it for you.
A few years ago Ron contacted us, and we kept up a sporadic correspondence. He and his wife Karen were here, and they both played with the St. Johns Community Band during the Sesquicentennial.
Once when we were in Seattle we had a chance to visit with Ron and Karen. They showed us the Museum of Flight and took us out to dinner. By that time Ron was beginning to show the effects of the Parkinson’s Disease that would take his life last Monday. More recently Ron and Karen had moved to Burbank, California to be closer to their children. Ron was definitely slowing down.
When the Rodney B. Wilson High School Class of 1961 held their 50th reunion a few years ago, Ron and Karen were there. Our classmate Alan Smith and his group provided the entertainment, and we had a very nice visit. At the end of the evening Ron brought out his trumpet and played while the whole group sang the Fight Song.
[Disclaimer: Ron was a died in the wool MSU fan. His Michigan shirt in this photo was worn earlier as a concession to Frank Jilka during a 2011 visit.]
Last Tuesday we received this message from Karen:
Ron died on Monday afternoon at home with all of his family around him.
He had been bed bound and in Hospice for the last 6 months.
He never gave up hope of getting better and returning to our community band to play.
His Parkinson’s slowed him down until he couldn’t walk, but he kept his sense of humor.
[Our daughter] Amy said that he is now in heaven auditioning on his trumpet for that great choir in the sky. Music was his favorite activity all through life.
Don’t miss the bicycle band photo in Ron’s full obituary.
In March of 2011 while we here in Michigan were hip deep in snow, Ron sent a photo of himself tooling around his suburban Seattle neighborhood on his recumbent bicycle.
Ride on, Ron. Ride on.