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Nobody lives forever; some people should.

Dr. David Dye “is” one of those.

Just how many years I have known Dr. Dye, I have no idea.

But, I do know that, I never called him, David. He was always “Dr. Dye.”

He and Judy shared my love of storytelling and they were among the most devoted supporters of the Pike Piddlers Storytelling Festival and most all events at the We Piddle Around Theater.

One of my first work “experiences” with Dr. Dye was too many years ago to remember. But he came by the newspaper and asked me to write an article about his daylily sale. I wrote what was, I thought, a rather interesting article about daylilies. I had plans to go to the daylily sale but forgot. The day after the paper came out, Dr. Dye stopped by to thank me for the article. Then, almost apologetically, he mentioned that I had the wrong date of the sale.

I was embarrassed and so sorry but he said that was okay, he was going to have the daylily sale that weekend. I ran another interesting article about daylilies. Dr. Dye came by to thank me. He casually mentioned I had the wrong date. But he was going to have the sale again. He did and again I had the date wrong.

When I finally got the date right, Dr. Dye said he had the biggest daylily sale he had ever had. Folks had come and come and weren’t about to miss it “if and when” it happened We laughed often about that. He said sometimes one wrong or two or three make a right.

Just last year, Dr. Dye trusted me to write an article about his amazingly beautiful dahlias. Beautiful could not begin to describe their beauty and neither could I capture it with the camera. So, I kept going back and back, hoping a miracle to happen with my camera.

Every time, I went back, Dr. Dye, Judy and I would “strike up” a conversation and often enjoy a slice of homemade sweet bread.

I finally realized the camera could not capture the beauty of Dr. Dye’s dahlias. The story ran, with pictures.

Dr. Dye came by with a big basket of dahlias of all colors to thank me for getting the article in the paper before the dahlias went to seed or wherever they go when flowers die.

“Don’t forget to take your basket.”

“I’ll come back later. If I don’t you can have it.”

Thanks, Dr. Dye.