Ben E. Daniels-1937-2011

One year ago today Ben passed away. A wonderful husband, father, grandfather, brother and friend to anyone Ben met. Always in my heart and not forgotten. For those of you who did not make it to the service I want to share the letter that was read. Dear Ben, It doesn’t seem possible that you have been gone 6 months and in those 6 months there hasn’t been a day that goes by that I don’t have to remind myself that you are no longer here. With the arrival of spring I look across the field and expect to see you on the tractor or on your hands and knees working on the irrigation or nurturing a plant along. Sometimes I will come around to the side of the barn and expect to see you sitting in the workshop in your chaotic mess repairing something. If it was lunchtime I would find you in your easy chair, eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a cup of fruit and a cup of green tea, everyday for 20 years the same thing! When I am outside I try to remember your voice, giving a shout out to God, or hollering across the street to Jim or Chris, but all I hear is silence. But within that silence in the gardens I take myself back over the last 23 years and remember you and our life together. Our friendship started when I was shopping at the antique fair in Brimfield and I needed to get my treasures back to San Diego. The sign hanging here in the tent today caught my attention and I left message after message only to receive a call from you after I returned to California. Not exactly a big help. Next trip to Brimfield we actually met up, you hauled my stuff to the west coast and I am not sure how this California beach girl and a cross country trucker from the south every hit it off, but this caring friendship was like no other I had ever had. You actually saw my independence, ambition and my willingness to work hard as virtues! You wanted me to be successful and you have always been willing to help me achieve whatever I felt was within my reach. Remember the taco stand that you helped me set up in Brimfield for several years? Dad used to call me and my sister Lucy and Ethel because I would come up with some crazy idea and Nancy went along with it. I guess I found my Ricky Ricardo in you as you helped me build the best darn taco stand on Route 20! We were a team! Any idea or goal that I came up with you were right there by my side helping me to achieve it. I had always wanted to go the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. And you know that no one saw the parade like you and I did! The first year at the parade, I was so excited to be in New York City, I wanted to look fashionably good and you came out dressed like you were going on an expedition to the north pole!! I was horrified, but you warned me that I was going to freeze to death and after 6 long hours standing on the street corner I actually thought you were right. Walking back to the hotel I could hardly feel my feet!! I never complained, you never offered me your parka, but you taught me a lesson and the next year we went to the parade I was dressed just like I was going to join you on that expedition to the North Pole. Year 3 we arrived at the parade with ladders so that we could see over the crowd. Year 4, we actually rode the subway and carried 2 ladders and a board so that we would have our own personal bleacher seats!! We were the envy of the corner. One of my favorite memories with you! You were always up for a challenge! We have laughed over the years about the ride I took in your truck when we first met. We had stopped at a weigh station in Connecticut and one of the state troopers flagged us out of the line up. He came to my side of the truck and asked me to get out. I thought he was just being friendly by asking me all of these questions about who I was, why I was with you and what I was doing here from the west coast. You were being questioned on the other side by another trooper. When they finally let us go, we got back in the truck and you told me that they thought you had picked me up hitchhiking or was I possibly a hooker!!! (Pretty straight looking hooker I might add!) Years later you ran into the same trooper and he asked if you had ever seen me again and you said, yes, I married her! I admire, respect and love you for your ambition and drive and your ability to find the good in just about everyone. I have learned a lot about what it means to help others. You were the “go to” guy in our neighborhood!! Always had the right tool, the know how and a willingness to help. I have truly benefited from your “pay it” forward approach to life this past 6 months. I hope you can see all of the love, kindness and help that everyone has shown me. I have asked what I could do to repay their kindness and they have all responded that they had asked you what they could do for you when you helped them, your response, “Nothing right now, but Heidi is going to need you some day”. Well I can assure you that they have all been here for me. Driving in your truck and cris-crossing the country was your dream job and you lived it everyday for 30 plus years. Your expertise in moving antique furniture helped you build your specialty moving business and your reputation with dealers and auction houses was incredible. Working the Brimfield shows with you after we were married were some of the most fun and happiest times we had together. You loved the people and each May when we saw your customers we felt that so many of them were like family. I hate to admit it but the New England Truck Stop was our home away from home. There wasn’t anything that you couldn’t build. Whether it was the truck that you so lovingly called home all those years and built from the ground up from parts that you found along the way. Or the wood burning stove you built that put out so much heat that one day I looked out the window in the dead of winter and saw all of the doors and windows open in the garage because it was too hot! You could practically cremate a body in the thing! Want you to know that Casoli’s will be using it this winter to heat their warehouse You built a wood splitter that was amazing, it could split a tree trunk whole, I wanted to charge a fee for the men who were in awe of it and wanted to pull the lever. One of the last things you built was converting the forklift into a snowplow for winter. It was an amazing piece of ingenuity. The kicker was when you put lights on it for nighttime plowing. The lights you used were lights for airport runways. I looked out the window one evening and the whole yard was lit up!! I was afraid that Logan airport would start diverting traffic here. You never ceased to amaze me. Plympton Sand and Gravel is now the proud owner of the forklift/snowplow. I was so proud of all of your inventions and apparently others were impressed too. I hope you will be happy to know that all of your hard work and creations live on. I have asked everyone today to take a moment and walk around these grounds. I want them to look at how you have transformed Harrub’s Corner into Harrub’s National Park. Your vision here has been achieved and I will continue to make sure that it will always look as beautiful as when you left this earth. I don’t know how many miles of irrigation line you put down, but I know there were countless hours on your hands and knees putting it together. Not to mention the hours spent on researching the perfect plant food and organic pesticides to be sure we had the healthiest soil around and most beautiful gardens.. Summer Gardens was only a dream of mine and you made it come true! When you made up your mind you were going to do something you did it! Sometimes a good thing and sometimes not! While going through some papers I found a letter that I wrote to my family when we decided to get married. Because of our age difference I wrote that if Ben and I only had 20 years to spend together I would be happy to know that my life was truly blessed in so many ways. Unfortunately the 20 years went by too quickly. I thought we easily had another 20 to go. I want your son’s David and Gene to know that you were very proud of them and loved them very much. And Dave, he was so happy and proud of the job that you are doing in raising your 3 girls. I also want you to know that the love and support from our family and friends has given me so much strength to get through the past few months. Jim and Elizabeth have certainly kept their promise to you to look out for me if anything ever happened to you. I will be forever grateful for all they have done for me and for being with me in those last few hours before you died. I wish you had had more time to spend with Chris, Laurel and Christian. I know how much you enjoyed sharing your knowledge with the new homeowners and you were looking forward to the day you could put Christian on the tractor and teach him how to operate it. He was going to be your right hand man. .They are keeping an eye on me as well. And Steve and his crew were here every night splitting the trees you picked up around town and stacking firewood. I know that if I need anything I can count on him and am so grateful for all of his help. Louis and Veto could not be here today, but they have been my right hand men every weekend since you got sick. There are no words to express their loyalty, hard work and dedication to you and me and I know I can always count on them They know just what to do and how you would handle the work. I don’t know what I would do without them. Without you around I am having to brush up on my Spanish speaking skills, so Muchas Gracias Louis and Veto por todos de suyo duro trabajo, tu are mi familia. (Hope I got that right!) I don’t know how much you heard during your last few hours, but the Doctors told me that some people hold on because they are afraid to die. I take comfort in knowing that you were not afraid and that your strong faith in God has put you in a better place. I pray that you and your daughter, Lisa, are together again. I also know that you have seen all of the kindness shown to me by others because you are watching over me. I still have our buddy Mac and feel each day with him is a gift, he misses you too. Please continue to watch over me I miss you everyday and will love you always. Heidi