Hugging Steve Bean

My good friend, Steve Bean, looking out at his back yard, holding his precious Pip.

The first time I was in The Studio, a building that is part of the complex of the Okefenokee Heritage Center, it was for the performance of John Youman's wonderful play about the Salem Witch Trials.  It was a play performed across the Heritage Center, and the audience moved from one place at the Heritage Center to another.

The actual witch trials took place in The Studio.  Two men who had been going to my church, Steve Bean and Rob Stewart, played the Judges of that trail.  They did a marvelous job, and it was a pleasure to see them performing.

Later, a group I was close to, Flying Dragon Arts Center, a children's theater group, was faced with having to cut costs and find a different venue.  I thought of The Studio, and Steve, as curator of the Okefenokee Heritage Center, was kind and generous in trying to work out arrangements with him.  Alas, it was not to be.  Part of the reason lay in the inadequacies of the facility, having no air conditioning, and no bathroom inside the building.

But Steve did not forget.  Thanks to his efforts, and those of the Heritage Board and John Youmans,  The Studio has improved dramatically.  It now has heat and air, the roof has been restored, and there are plans to install a bathroom.  It is becoming the perfect facility for small theatrical productions and other performances.

The last time I was in The Studio was yesterday afternoon.  Director Barbara Griffin put together a brilliant showing of the play Purlie Victorious, a play written by Ossie Davis, the versatile actor who had grown up in Waycross.  While I was at that play, enjoying the fruits of what Steve Bean had helped curate and create, Steve passed.

He'd had a triple bypass a couple of weeks ago, and there were complications.  He had a massive stroke on Wednesday night, and the doctors said that Days 3 and 4 were crucial days to survive brain swelling.  On the afternoon of Day 4, he did not make it.  He lost his fight for life in this realm, and moved to a different one, one of light and love and free from woe.

He was a good friend whom I will always love and cherish.  He was a friend to our entire family.  Every time Alison saw him, she had to go get "her hug from Steve".

He was my vestry buddy in church.  We would sit together during meetings, and make humorous comments to each other about the proceedings.

He helped draw in the Okefenokee Heritage Center as a more central part of my life.  It was his support and encouragement that led to the creation of the Writer's Guild.  When I took over the accounting of the Heritage Center, even though Steve was definitely not a numbers person, he did everything he could to help me.  I would often go to the Heritage Center in conjunction with both fiscal and artistic endeavors, and we would talk and kvetch.

He was a great lover of dogs.  He wasn't a big part of the Humane Society, as was Rob, but he did open his heart and his home to all the fosters Rob brought home.

But most of all, next to my father, Steve taught me what it really meant to be a Christian.  It's not a list of do's and don'ts.  It's not a litany of intolerances.  It's first and foremost about love.  It's about caring and sharing, about opening your heart.  He expanded my definition and understanding of love, of what being a Christian is and should be.

Every time Alison and Benjamin and I go into our church, it will be with the presence and love of Steve.

Every time I enter the Heritage Center, it will be with his memory and artistry and caring inspiring me.

And every time we see Rob, it will be with a hug, and it will not just be him that we are hugging.  Every time, that hug will also include Steve.

We love you, Steve, Rob and Cody.  Now and always.