David Dye
I
remember the day when I had no idea who David Dye was and tonight I mourn the
death of a brother and friend. Let me
start from the beginning!
The
Fourth of July 1995 was spent at Mom and Dad’s house. Chip had driven down to Belle Fourche to
take us to the Black Hills Roundup. We
were eating lunch when there was a knock at the door and Chip yelled out, “Come
on in!” That was not what I really
thought should have happened. That
stocky young man opened the door and walked in.
Mom in her own way said, “Who are you?” and the reply was “An
encyclopedia salesman.” Well I knew that
there were two old sets in the house already.
So Mom replied, “We don’t need any encyclopedias.” That guy smiled and sat down in my grandma’s
rocking chair, and as always Chip started talking to him. Now I was getting a little frustrated with
the situation until Chip made a comment that made me realize that this “salesman”
must be Chip’s brother. That was my
introduction to David Dennis Dye.
Sometime
later I was out helping Chip at the ranch when his entire family came out. With the entire family helping a lot of brush
and tree limbs were taken to the dump and the yard began to look very
nice. After mowing the lawn for a couple
of hours, David brought me an ice cold glass of water and we sat on the grass
and talked. I watched as he shared his
glass of tea with his two dachshunds. That was the day our friendship began.
In
1999 Chip and I were married. David gave
us his blessing and I appreciated knowing that he approved of his brother’s
future wife.
After
our marriage, David would call or come up to the ranch to visit. I always appreciated his sense of humor,
smile and laugh. One day I called him
and asked him to join the family for Thanksgiving at the ranch. He asked what he should bring and I replied,
“Bring your great personality!”
Hmmm! He had added a little
“buzz” to his personality before he arrived. I informed him that it was his personality I
wanted, not one that came from a bottle.
He laughed and the family had a great time.
David,
Chip and I took a trip to Arizona to their nephew’s wedding. David liked to be
in control and to be behind the steering wheel. That was fine. When we reached
Colorado, he was ready to let someone
else drive. Unfortunately it was in the Rocky Mountain National park and
although I had driven it years before, I froze up on that trip. I was driving 5
MPH and my knuckles were white. David said, “You are making me nervous!” I am
sure the ten cars behind me were nervous too. It could have been a long trip up
that mountain at 5 MPH. I pulled over and David drove again. I was sitting in
the passenger seat but leaning over as far as I could to the middle of the
seat. He said, “Dru, leaning over isn’t going to help.” I replied, “Oh, yes it
is! I can’t see the bottom of valley.” It was a long trip! We had fun times and
frustrating times, but we became better friends because of it.
Things
started to change in David’s life and he started asking questions about God and
the Bible. Chip and he would have long
discussions on the phone or at the ranch. One day he sat on the couch and Chip
went through the Bible with him showing him God’s plan of salvation, but David didn’t
understand it. I asked him if he were to
die right now, where he would go. He
didn’t hesitate as he pointed downward.
He knew that he was on his way to Hell, but he wouldn’t accept Christ as
his Savior.
A
lot happened after that day. His aunt
died and then his mother died. He
thought that his mother would last forever and so wasn’t there with her when
she died.
It
was about a year later that we received a call from David stating that he had
accepted Christ as his Savior and that he wanted to be baptized. The decision was to be baptized in the
reservoir that almost took his life.
Please
read his testimony below.
