Yesterday I went to the funeral of my long time friend
Andrew Kneib. He fought cancer for 15 years and was one of the strongest persons I have ever known. He was one of my heroes.
As kids, and teens we both had brain tumors/cancer. We even were in the Make A Wish program together. It always seemed that when I got better that Andrew got better. But then our old enemy, cancer struck him once more.
I am so blessed that I was able to know him in this life. He is such a great person and friend. I have no doubt where he is going and that he is doing many great and wonderful things on the other side.
What was said at his funeral is such a wake up call to me because he did not let his cancer stop him from doing anything! The following are some of what was said at the funeral:
"He got his eagle scout when he was only 14....., He worked in high school even had two jobs in his Senior year....., always did his school work even when he was under going his chemo treatments he was even able to graduate form high school in 2005 on time.
Andrew was always willing to serve in the church. He started doing home teaching at 12 and did it regularly. After high school he taught primary for 3 years. He loved the kids he taught and they loved him." He always made a big deal about celebrating their birthdays, and they always enjoyed taking turns pushing him in his wheelchair from class to sharing time.He always wanted to be a missionary, but that wasn’t possible. Instead, he served a mini-mission with Moises Echeverria. They would get together and study scriptures and then go out with the missionaries.
"When he was originally told that he would only have 2-3 months to live, it was arranged for him to go to the temple to receive his endowments. During that time period, he and Arlana(his mom) did a lot of traveling around the country, and he got to visit 16 temples. He greatly enjoyed going to the temple and went every month. He truly understood the plan of salvation, and the gospel, and he had a strong testimony that families can be together forever."
There was so much more said, he went to New York to see a Yankees game (with his dad) on their home field and many more things. He lived his life to the fullest! How many of us really do that, live our lives to the fullest? All of us need to start doing that. We all really need to enjoy our lives, see and know what is really important and what really matters. We should
NOT have any regrets in our lives; our mortal lives are so short.
I will never forget you Andrew. You will be greatly missed and I love you.
I am so blessed to have known Andrew in my life.
