Stan Braxton: 1960- 2011

Very sad news indeed. I had hoped and indeed felt there would be a happier outcome. Though I only met him briefly; it seems he certainly had a heart full of happiness. On to the next! Godspeed Stan!
 
After reading all these responses, I wish I would have had the opportunity to meet you in person Stan. RIP sir.
 
Stan's Funeral...thought I'd share:


Andy, Mark(perlzuki) and I drove Thursday morning to south of Atlanta(Fayetteville) for the funeral and the graveside ceremony.
While Stan was in the hospital, I had been in touch with Curtis, one of Stan's cousins and at the time we had talked about how much we didn't want to meet each other...because if we did, it would be at the funeral.
But we did meet and it was nice to meet others that were a big part of Stan's life, his other friends and family.
It was obvious everyone was going to miss him a lot.

The medal display was full of medals, but Stan was so humble, he had never bragged about any of that stuff.
Also, after the military honors and graveside ceremony, some of his friends/fellow service men did a push up drill.
It put a smile on everyone's face and we laughed about how Stan would have grinned at that.
 
Coke, Stan's wife emailed me this to share with you all:

To all Stan’s NESBA Buddies,

I finally acquired the strength to go on the threads and read what all of you have said about Stan. I promise you that he had the very same feelings about all of you. He spoke of everyone he encountered during his NESBA excursions with admiration and respect. My only regret is that I never made it out to the track with him. We always planned that I would, but the schedule never allowed for it.

I want to thank you all for your wonderful, and heartfelt words. You should know that you meant just as much, possibly more, to him. He cherished his “Track Weekends” like a kid going to Disney World, and he held those friendships in the highest regard.

The knowledge that keeps me going… what I have held on to during this entire ordeal, is that very few of us will get that “last sentence” we hope for. How will the last sentence of our lives begin? It’s something some of us think about, and others avoid. I know from the deepest part of my heart of hearts that if given a blank page to write out what he wanted his last sentence to read, one of Stan’s choices would have been:

“There I was, doing 138 into turn 8 at Barber….”

That one would have had the big red circle around it with a couple of stars next to it. If the Lord was going to take him with a stroke, it would have been far more painful had he gone raking leaves in the backyard or sitting in the recliner watching TV. God knew that would be too cruel for a man so much larger than life. Nope, God took him doing what he loved. Stan is still back there on turn 8, as he should be. Looking back at all you alpha males with that great big, “I just passed your little asses” grin on his face. Stan got his last sentence.


Carmela M. Braxton
 
Thanks Aman.

That has to be one of the deepest, most profound couple of paragraphs I've ever read.

Thank you Carmela.
 
Carmela, that made me chuckle and gave me chills all at the same time. I have no real words of wisdom, just continue to stay strong. Your family is in my prayers.
 
Wow, that was really a cool message from Coke. I wished I had met her. She really gets what the track meant to Stan and what it means to most of us. They must have been really close for her to pick up on that.

It really makes me think about my own wife and cherish her even more.
 
Aman,

Nice work and thanks for sending these out to us on the list.

Stan001.jpg
 
noobinacan;227315 wrote: Coke, Stan's wife emailed me this to share with you all:

He cherished his “Track Weekends” like a kid going to Disney World, and he held those friendships in the highest regard.

The knowledge that keeps me going… what I have held on to during this entire ordeal, is that very few of us will get that “last sentence” we hope for. How will the last sentence of our lives begin? It’s something some of us think about, and others avoid. I know from the deepest part of my heart of hearts that if given a blank page to write out what he wanted his last sentence to read, one of Stan’s choices would have been:

“There I was, doing 138 into turn 8 at Barber….”

That one would have had the big red circle around it with a couple of stars next to it. If the Lord was going to take him with a stroke, it would have been far more painful had he gone raking leaves in the backyard or sitting in the recliner watching TV. God knew that would be too cruel for a man so much larger than life. Nope, God took him doing what he loved. Stan is still back there on turn 8, as he should be. Looking back at all you alpha males with that great big, “I just passed your little asses” grin on his face. Stan got his last sentence.


Carmela M. Braxton
Click to expand...
Thank you for this . . . really choked me up
 
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