Ray North

Have you ever googled a friend, not out of ill-intent but just curiosity, because they’d done so many things prior to your knowing that person that you wondered if any of it showed up online?

If you google my friend Ray North, you get the website for, and all manner of information about, Ray, North Dakota.  Here’s what the town has to say about itself:

Ray is a positive thinking community with an eye on the future. A small town it may be, but small town values, an excellent work ethic, and friendly ambitious people make Ray an excellent community.

And that’s Ray, in spades.  Though his ambition, as we saw it, was not with respect to career advancement, but projects for the Boy Scouts, in his role as assistant scoutmaster, which is how my husband first got to know him, and you’d also have to add to that description a strong faith in God that inspired others.

He passed from this life to the next, in the early hours of this morning, after a hard-fought battle against cancer.  Even as recently as nine days ago, he and his wife were headed to their specialist hospital in Texas fully expecting to begin another series of treatments, until, upon arriving there, they learned that the cancer was too far advanced.  He was unable even to return home, and his four children (ages 7 – 14) and other family members joined him there for his last days.  And both there in Texas, and here at home, and virtually via facebook, we all prayed, no longer for healing but for peace and comfort for Ray and his family.

And over the past week, the outpouring of support on facebook, both via posts on his wife’s wall and through a special “Prayers for Ray North” facebook group, have been deeply moving, as friends and family shared prayers, memories, photos, even a clip of Ray singing at a wedding.  (Mark Zuckerberg, when you created facebook, you had no idea it would become a vehicle for middle-aged parents to share inspirational quotes and cute kid videos, let alone to come together in situations like this, but it’s truly extraordinary.)  He was loved by so many people, and will be deeply missed.