Good afternoon, like many of you I belong to the FOK club. That’s friends of Kesslers. This is my story of my relationship with Steve Kessler.

I was in my contact screen updating Stephen Jr.‘s contact the other day and realized that I had to delete his Dad‘s contact. It was a very difficult thing for me to do. Heartbreaking actually. I cried for a while. Finally let it out.

And then I thought back to the time Steve was looking at selling the practice and all of the detailed talks we had about it. All the frustration he had and the issues with loyalty and not knowing what to do or whether to take the offers, which I was strongly opposed to, they were lowballing him and I didn’t like it. Then I thought how great God is that the path was paved for his son with the same name, the same if not greater talent, to take over his practice and continue his legacy. God is so good. How could that have gone any better? What an outcome! The timing. And Steve was so proud. So you are welcome Stephen, still not sure why I get charged when I come all the way down there when I basically saved the practice for you.

Dr. Steve Kessler has been one of my best friends for 25+ years. I spent almost every Monday morning with him for those years and Dr. Frank Seekins and others having breakfast and talking about life, God and relationships as well as our own families and challenges for all that time. I was the young dumb one. The common thread was mostly how to deal with ourselves. You see Steve and I and others suffered from LSAS. Low Spousal Awareness Syndrome. It’s not in any of the medical journals but it should be. A lot of times we just didn’t get it. You would hear “Why are these women so mad at us? What do you mean why did we say that? No I didn’t not pray about it before I said it!” How fortuitous it was that Frank was a godsend to both of us. He knew all of the right answers and studied relationships as his life’s work. However, in the end we found out that for all of his knowledge, Frank may have had a touch of LSAS himself but he never let on it at the time. Thank God.

Besides breakfast we biked, hiked, dined, laughed, cried and talked through life. We experienced great joy, pain, death and in my case divorce. He stayed at my house for 4-5 days after coming home from a trip to find a crime scene in the form of an expired house sitter in their home. I went to his house after coming home from a guys fishing trip and finding a note on my table and papers being served. We also constantly tried to answer the question ‘Who let the dogs out?” Turn out no one did, the little bastards roamed the neighborhood freely by getting out on their own. We hunted together. Scorpions, gophers and other big game as only the most masculine men do.

He also knew he was a work in progress as our breakfast club all did. He knew his past failures and wanted to make them right. I met him after he and Ginny had reconciled several years before and he was determined to do better. He was aware of his shortcomings, but it never stopped him from trying to be a better man. He was so humble in that way. For all of his accomplishments like all of us he had insecurities as well. I admired him greatly. I also loved him very much.

One of the things I loved about Steve was that he knew his strengths and he knew his weaknesses. His strength was that he was a very highly respected Mose surgeon and he had a passion for his work and practice and patients that was incredibly admirable. He helped a lot of people. He and Ginny served and helped a lot of people together. She has the gift of hospitality. He was bragging about her constantly. He was wicked smart. Genius even. Disciplined also. At the gym every single morning. He loved his kids and most of all he adored Ginny. He wanted to make her happy and keep his family intact. That became his life goal.

We were an odd couple this highly intelligent surgeon, and this not so highly intelligent, younger entrepreneur that grew to become best friends and had a deep abiding mutual respect and admiration for each other and of course it helped we were neighbors. It also may have been bonding that we both had a touch of Asperger’s and OCD.

When I was married and then going through my divorce, it was very fortuitous that I lived four or five houses down from Steve and Ginny. They became like a second family and the combination of brother – sister – parents that I will never forget. They took care of me, supported me like no one else. They were for me, as my wife likes to describe it. I can still see Steves face light up whenever he saw me. “Greg!” he would say. I don’t know what I did to deserve the friendship we had. I still feel that way about them today, time did not lessen my appreciation at all like it sometimes can for the love they showed and show me. It’s like it was yesterday as it was 15+ years ago.

Steve was a good man. I can still hear Ginny calling him S and he affectionately referring to her as Ginge. He could be a little awkward. A little introverted at times. But I never, like I hope most of you who knew him, did not understand where I stood with him and how he felt about me and I always let him know the same. He was caring, transparent and was such an incredibly decent human being you could not like him. He would be the first tell you though that he did evolve from being a tougher, less lenient and flexible human from before I met him however. He loved to make fun of himself as much as he did me. I go back to the work in progress statement as we all are right?

I miss him very very much. Actually I’ve been missing him for the last couple of years. I don’t think the world is going to be the same without Dr. Steve Kessler. I know I lost someone great. And I know all of you did too, and that he meant more to many of you than even he did to me. Which is hard to fathom.

But he is in good hands. He’s more than good. Steve’s with Jesus and so is Frank. And I hope they still have breakfast every week. I hope they are looking down on me and still looking out for me like they always did. Because was one of the greatest gifts I ever received was their friendship. They brought me closer to God than anyone could have.

RIP Steve. You are very missed. You are a good man. I’m sorry for the pain you lived with at the end. The irony of a physically debilitating disease taking someone who loved to exercise and keep healthy. But you handled it with grace and you left behind a grateful wife and children and their spouses, beautiful grandchildren and a lot of friends. You did so well. You died married to Ginny which in your mind was your biggest accomplishment. Your kids are doing great. The Kessler genes are running rampant through your beautiful grandkids. Your kids are all married to great people.

So well done. Don’t worry. Say Hi to Jesus for us.