LETTER TO EDITOR: Friend offers eulogy to Vega
I read this eulogy at the funeral for Roy Vega: Roy Vega was
born in Chicago in 1980; he died in Rapid City, S.D., in 2009. His childhood
years, full of love and laughter, were spent in Chicago, Bloomington, Ind., and
Newton. He served honorably in the U.S. Air Force for five years. Roy is remembered
as a practical joker, loyal friend, loving son, brother, husband and father.
The love in this funeral home is tremendous. The love directed to and emanating
from Roy is tremendous. Let's hang onto that for eternity.
There was this one time I was driving a shiny new car down
Main Street in Newton. Roy and I had both had a bit to drink. All of a sudden,
he says, 'Hey Mulls. You should race Vinny.' Three thousand dollars in court
costs later, I learned two valuable lessons:
1. Driving under the influence never pays off
2. Not every one of Roy's spur-of-the-moment ideas is wise
But if I had to describe Roy in one word, it would be
courageous. He flat out refused to back down in the face of danger. I want to
emphasize courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is the will and the
ability to overcome fear in the name of justice.
On more than one occasion, Roy stepped in between me and a
gun. Were they frightening occasions? You bet your bottom dollar. But Roy could
instantaneously overcome fear and doubt in order to shield his loved ones from
danger. The guy had guts. He did it time and time again. Many, many of us, in
this room and elsewhere, are alive today because of Roy's courage.
The lesson he taught on courage was not how to watch him be
courageous; it was to enable our own courage. It was to teach us to step in
between our loved ones and a gun, be it literal or metaphoric.
It is now your responsibility to step in between your loved
ones and danger and diffuse the situation, because Roy is no longer able to do
it for us.
When you do it, it's gonna be frightening. But Roy teaches
us how to channel fright into courageous action. So when you intercept violence
and diffuse it, you do it in the name of justice, and you do it in the name of
Roy. And when you do that, you carry on the legacy of this tremendous man.
- Miles Garrett,
Ithaca, NY
