In Memory Of William Gruling RIP 1966-2012

About last week, I and my GF and a bunch of friends were going to
celebrate St Patrick's Day with a few drinks, followed but a few
drinks back at my GF's Place. We were riding home from the liquor
store Friday night, when she received the call from her niece, I saw
as my GF's face went pale, and after she had gotten off the phone she
told me that her roommate/friend of the family/friend of her father
whom she had known her whole life had been at a stop sign waiting to
turn onto another street, only to have him and his car crushed by a
semi-truck that didn’t bother to stop. From what we could tell, he
didn't suffer and died quickly. William Gruling was 45 years old.
Those who knew him knew that he was a big kid and was a very kind and
generous man and a hungry man.

NEWS ARTICLE

I first met Billy on New Year’s Eve. I brought along some burgers I
made from scratch, and these were no small burgers, these were at
least a good half pound a piece. Everyone who tried them loved them.
Most of the people could only finish one burger, 2 if they were really
hungry. Billy being the man with the hollow leg ate 4! I asked him how
he liked the burgers; he just smiled and gave me thumbs up.

Billy kinda looked like a bunch of hair with a smile, he liked working
with his hands and you could see it in his permanently dirty hands, or
at least I always saw him that way.

Billy liked to eat a lot when Billy treated us all to dinner. Wither
it was Denny's, Texas Roadhouse, or BW3 Wild Wings, he always ordered
huge and usually double portions. And then get a sandwich afterwards.
But as much as he ate, he never seemed to retain any of the weight.
This guy could out-eat anyone and still have room for more.

He loved his cars and loved working on them. He had a blue car with
flames on it along with a really loud horn. He always talked about
putting bull horns on the front of his car, just because they were
cool.

I only knew Billy for a few months, and it’s a damn shame that he
died. It's very easy to get attached to having someone there. It’s
just not the same without Billy.

I could only imagine what my GF's family was going though, most of
them knowing Billy almost their whole lives.

This was the first time that I had experienced a death of a friend, a
good friend. And it is not a pleasant experience at all. I, My GF,
along with Billy's mom, dad, and brother went to the Funeral Parlor to
plan out Billy’s funeral, they were just closing and scheduled for a
meeting on 11am the following day. When we arrived back at the funeral
parlor we looked at the coffins as we waited for Billy’s family to
arrive. We picked out a nice wooden coffin, with fish and deer end
caps for the corners, and a fishing/hunting banner for the lining of
the coffin lid. During the rest of the planning, I was trying my best
not to cry, when we finally got back to my GF's place we tried to keep
our minds occupied.

At the funeral itself, we arrived a little before 2-3pm we put up a
couple poster boards with pictures of Billy, some with him hunting
with my GF's dad, some him having fun playing games, and other various
photos. We sat for a while, while we waited for the other people to
arrive. We tried to keep our spirits up by talking about the funny
things Billy had done and how good of a person he was. When it hit
about 7, the priest had begun his speech. His speech seemed improvised
and more like a pitch for believing in god then in memory of Billy.
Then after the prayer, he asked everyone to start from the back and
give Billy one last goodbye before they left. When our row came up
(very front row) we looked at the pictures one last time, then said
our goodbye's to Billy. Only a few people were left and I couldn’t
hold back the tears anymore. When we finally exited the Funeral
Parlor, we found ourselves outside, everyone was just trying to relax
for a bit and talk with one another for a while, somehow I managed to
forget the poster boards just outside as we drove off to go back to my
GF's Place. We got a call from her aunt that let us know she had them
so we had to head over to her cousin's place to pick them up. We
Stayed for a while. The next day was the burial which we pulled our
cars up one by one. Once everyone was there I was one of the pall
bearers that helped carry Billy’s Coffin to his final resting place,
which we were rushed though, the priest was quick, and they needed us
out of there so the other scheduled service could arrive.

Take what life gives you. Life is so very short for arguing and
bickering about the little things. Live your life as if it were your
last. Tell your loved ones you love them every time you see them,
death can occur at any moment, and you might not see it coming. In
other words, "Be excellent to each other"---Bill and Ted's Excellent
Adventure