I met Ed many years ago when we were both flight attendants. He was adorable and funny and completely irrepressible.
We lost touch for many years after that airline went bankrupt. Ed continued flying for a major airline and loved his life. He found me on Facebook three years ago and we began to talk and catch up with each other's lives. We talked for hours on the telephone and chatted and emailed often. When I had to be in South Carolina for a dance performance The Princess was in, he drove an hour and a half to see us and have lunch with us.
It was as though only a couple of days had passed since we had last seen each other, not twenty years! I was amazed that he hadn't changed at all. Ed still had that twinkle in his eyes that I remembered and the smile that lit up his face.
If you knew Ed, you know that he was an original. He was loyal and generous and was full of love and full of life. He lived every moment of his life to the fullest. He had a dry sense of humor and a unique way of looking at life. He always tried to find the positive in every situation.
I am overwhelmed by sadness. It's hard for me to comprehend that someone so full of life and love and happiness can be gone.
But even through my sadness and grief, I am inspired by my friend. He is an example of how one should live their life - completely, fully, and without fear. Ed embraced life. He loved his friends and his family. He squeezed every drop of living out of this life that he could, and he did it with joy and gusto. If Ed had a motto for life, it must have been "live, laugh, love" for that truly sums up the way he lived his life.
Ed was witty, charming, loyal, exuberant, and wonderful.
He was my friend.
And I will miss him.
Ed Bahmer
12/26/67 - 11/26/11
