I’ve spoken before about all the “unsung heroes” that keep our world going, and Mandan lost one of those folks this week… a fellow named Ervin Gunsch.

Erv was one of those guys that not only enjoyed being around people, but more importantly people enjoyed being around him… and I think that says a lot about who we all should strive to be.

I didn’t get to really know Erv until he left his job as a mechanic at Leroy’s Standard to go to work at Mandan Standard. Around the same time Joel (the owner of Mandan Standard) was kind enuf to hire my number one son and my only daughter to tend the station. My son was in high school and my daughter was working her way thru her sixth or seventh year of her four-year degree (you can do the math there).

At the time I was the proud parent of three teenage drivers and was paying over $450 a month on insurance on five vehicles in various states of disrepair that required the constant care of a mechanic.

It wasn’t uncommon for me to just pay Joel $200 a month and hope it would at least provide enuf good faith to allow Erv to work on the next thing that broke.  At one point I dropped my payment off at Joel’s and he called me to say that I had overpaid him.

I told him to just credit my account because I was sure it would be consumed before the end of the month… and it was. So Erv and I got to be good friends. Whilst he wrenched away on whatever broke, we’d solved many of the world’s problems… or so we thought.

It didn’t take me long to realize that Erv never treated me any more special than the next person that would walk into his life. He always greeted folks with a smile and spent enough time with them to get a smile from them before they departed. Like I said, people liked being around Erv.

In due time, Erv landed a job as a mail carrier with the U.S. Postal Service. He was absolutely delighted when he passed the civil service test and ecstatic when he got the job. And although he took his job very seriously whenever we’d meet, he still took time to say hello, to wave, to catch up and such.

The preacher at his funeral said “Ervin always wanted to be a mailman, so he could go around the neighborhood and talk to people.” And it sounds simple, but that’s what made Erv special.

It’s the simple things that seem to make life worth living, simple yet incredibly profound. Take what I said about Erv, the simple thing he did was take the time to be nice to everyone he met… and indeed, every time I’d see Erv we’d chat for a minute, share a laugh or two and head our separate ways, then look forward to seeing each other again… pretty simple, huh?

As I sat in the church watching one of those DVDs they show at funerals nowadays, the pictures of Erv and his family, his kids and grandkids, friends, and such brought a tear to my eyes.

It was here that I realized that this guy was another unsung hero who came into my life and left me thinking how much I enjoyed our few moments together.  Here’s hoping that someone can say something like that about you someday too… peace.