Kindness

Wes's kindness left an impression. I had heard much about Wes before I met him, as my dearest friend was (secretly--she was not the only one) taken with him, but I was eager to know him myself with all the curiosity and wonder of a childhood best friend seeing her buddy truly smitten for the first time. Who had finally piqued the interest and moved the heart of the incomparable Lori Packer?

I moved to Provo during the summer he came home from his mission. It was a summer full of college living--the soaring and the floundering. I remembering sitting across a table from Wes in our shabby college apartment and observing his gentleness, his friendly eyes, and uncharacteristically, pouring out my current confusion to his willing, listening ear. He was my friend.

From then on, I knew he was the kind of man you could give your best friend to without feeling too bad that he was stealing her away. Cheerful, honorable, hard-working, and always, always kind. The summer was full of adventures--treasure maps and canoe rides and the walkie-talkies necessary to help him pull off his epic marriage proposal to Lori. And over the years, whether in afternoon chats in their V-Hall apartment, phone calls from California and brief holiday visits, or summer trips to Pajaro Dunes, he has become as dear to me as my dear friend Lori, his example of sincere Christianity as impactful as Lori's has always been, their marriage a model of how beautiful family life can be.

When I visited Lori and Wes at the end of March, I marveled at the continuity of his kindness. How he searched for words to make conversation with me, though he often couldn't find them. How he reached out to Spencer and Lucy. How he wanted Lori to enjoy herself with a visiting friend. It left an impression, like it always has.

We love you, Wes. We miss you.

Michelle (Hayes) Campbell