I received sad news Monday morning. One of my oldest friends passed away over the weekend. Don Sewell. I met Don way back in the late 1800's when he was working at Musicland at Anderson Mall. I was there early before opening and peering in the windows and there he was. A pipe in his mouth foot propped on a browser and a guitar in his hands. I could hear the song he was picking, believe it or not All the Young Dudes by Mott the Hoople. Right then and there I knew we would become friends. Don and I shared good times, bad times, sickness and happiness. We visited and laughed, listened to music. LOTS, went to concerts. Played in bands and shared friends. We double dated from time to time with the latest "ONE" to come along. We lived miles apart and sometimes it was weeks between contact. We lived next door to one another at Spring Brook. Don married Sherry on Valentines day and I married Kristie later that same year. But no matter what we were always friends and ALWAYS shared the love of music. Don had one of the biggest collections of music I know of, second only to mine. Don was a dad to one older girl who married and has kids of her own now, and two younger school aged boys. I know they will miss their dad a lot. The good news is that Don had become a Christ Follower and was going to NewSpring every week. He loved it there. In his words, finally a church I am at home in.
Jake Beaty spoke at the services and did a wonderful job. I wore my Three Stooges tie in Don's honor, he loved them. Ritchie Smith played Pink Floyd. Don Garrison played the other music. And together they played a guitar keyboard duet of Little Wing by Jimi Hendrix. After the graveside services all the pall-bearers, Don's best friends ( the old gang ) got together and went to lunch at Monterrey. It was a wonderful celebration full of memories and funny stories. Interesting, a couple of these guys were hard living rock & rollers in the past lives. Hard -core partiers. I noticed we all ordered iced tea. Some of the things Jake said impressed these guys and I did not miss the chance to make sure they were all invited to NewSpring. I have 5 new names on my "come to church" prayer list. Maybe they will ...Don did.

Donald Brown Sewell.....We'll miss you man!!!! You were a true friend.