Thinking of my dear friends, The Unthanks, who have suffered so much loss, yet continue to praise the Lord for those He blessed them with in this life. I was a young teenager when the Unthanks began coming to our church, thanks to their precious Kate, so I pretty much grew up with them and grew to love them. Steve made the impression of being the handsome, athletic and eldest child and I saw quite a few girls’ notebooks with “I Love Steve” and “Stephen Eugene Unthank” and their name written underneath with sketched hearts. I was too young to fall under Steve’s spell, but I admired him a lot and thought he was a lot of fun. I saw him as my friend Carolyn’s big brother and the cool guy. He was cool to me because listening to rock and roll music was frowned upon in our home, so when he drove a group of us teens to Lake Jackson for a church picnic and played The Rolling Stones on his radio, that was a blast! When Steve was our youth leader at church, we were to meet at 6:00 on Sunday evenings for our youth group meeting. We became accustomed to Steve being invariably late…or maybe it was fashionably late…anyway, he was always late and always forgiven. We were mostly a group of girls, so we would all be gazing out the window awaiting Steve’s arrival. It seemed like a different car each week would pull up in front of our church and Steve would hop out of the passenger’s seat, close the door, and wave good-bye to a pretty girl. He was never prepared, but could come up with ideas on the spur of a moment. One time he seemed like he had chosen a topic that would garner a great discussion. He called on me first and asked, “Gayle, what do you want to be when you grow up?” I answered sincerely, “A mortician.” Steve looked rather stunned and moved on to his next question, “Well, what would you not want to be?” “A trash collector,” I replied. We could tell Steve was at a loss and had no follow-up questions, so we ended up by just singing our favorite youth group hymns. It still gives me a funny memory of him and how I caught him off-guard. I also remember when we had our church’s annual Christmas play. I was selected to be “the mother” and one of my “children” was Gary. We all had our lines down pact, but Gary had a problem with one word. He was supposed to say, “I guess I shall have to be content”, but it came out CON-TENT every time! Steve attended every rehearsal and constantly went over that word with Gary. Gary finally pronounced it correctly and Steve was so pleased. The night of the Christmas play, I guess nerves overtook Gary because he loudly proclaimed, “I guess I shall have to be CON-TENT!” I could see Steve sitting near the front and looked at his face at that moment. I could see him shake his head and roll his eyes. It was too funny! I can see Steve in my mind’s eye sitting in church with his arms outstretched on the back of the pew, with angelic Sharon sitting on one side and the ever-restless and adorable bow-tied Teddy on the other. If Teddy moved around too much, Steve would thump him on his head. Teddy would scowl, rub his head, and sit still for at least a moment or two. I think that was how everyone in the family had Teddy fall in line…and he was probably thumped more than a grocery melon! I remember when we heard Steve had gotten married. It broke a lot of hearts at church, but we knew his sweetheart must have been pretty special to have nabbed that handsome and great young man. God blessed Steve and Linda with a long and loving relationship and a wonderful son…and He will continue to bless Steve’s family and his precious siblings who will greatly miss his loving attention, humor, and presence. We pray the separation will not be a long one, as it is only “see you later” and never a good-bye. So honored to have known such a dear person and his most precious family. Sending them much love and prayers for the Lord to comfort them in the days and times to come. Even so, Come, Lord Jesus. With love and prayers, Gayle Spencer Jones