Jim Fall inspired me, gave perspective on life

Kaity Holtman

The service for Jim Fall Saturday was wonderful.

It reflected Jim’s personality and his life, as it was a collection of people from every part of Jim’s life. The perfect mix of traditional and personal, just like Jim.

Seeing his family all together was wonderful. I’d met each of his children separately when they came to visit, and he brought them into the office to show them off.

But to see all of his family standing together, to put faces with the names he spoke so proudly of, made my heart feel very full.

Those who spoke in remembrance of Jim did captured the Jim I knew, and from what I learned time and time again over the last week, the Jim we all knew.

The Jim everyone loved was always the same man, no matter when he was a big part of their lives.

I admire that a great deal. Not that I doubted this for one second, but meeting everyone cemented the fact that he had always been the Jim who had become my friend.

The reception following the service was exactly how he’d want it – packed full of his friends and family, laughing, crying, remembering.

It was a beautiful day to be on the golf course, a place that meant so much to him.

One of my favorite things I heard said this weekend was, “the world will be a little less interesting.” Amen.

Jim was ornery

I have to tell this story on Jim.

The day after Halloween last year, Jim came in mid-morning as he always did. But this time, he stopped at the candy bowl and grabbed a handful of Reece’s, and then took them back and put them in his desk drawer. I later went to get one, and there was not one Reece’s to be found. He had taken every one of them – he was hoarding them!

I gave him a hard time for a few days. We usually had some sort of running joke going, anyway.

The next week, I came in one morning to find a package of two giant Reece’s cups sitting on my desk. I think together they literally weighed a pound. On the package was a note that said, “From T.G.P.”

I knew exactly who it was from, but I couldn’t figure out the initials. When he came in, he wouldn’t admit to the prank gift. But then later, he told me it was “The Great Pumpkin.”

Ornery, that’s what he was.

So, to reciprocate, for his birthday in December, we had a candy bouquet made of all Reece’s products and peanut butter crackers (his daily snack) delivered to his desk. He just laughed, as he always did.

Jim was forgiving

Since I was often (part of) Jim’s technology helpdesk, I would help him with his many devices and programs. And, I’ll admit, oftentimes he came up with a problem I’d never seen before. He was always challenging me like that.

Anyway, one day he was having an issue with his Gmail account. I don’t remember the specific issue, but it was one he asked for my help on.

I told him I’d look at it while he was gone to a meeting, so as not to interrupt his productivity. While he was gone, I attempted to fix the issue. Instead of fixing it, though, I managed to delete everything in his entire account.

I didn’t just send it to the trash, I permanently deleted everything. It was not salvageable, and every configuration of a Google search for help told me that was the case.

I was so upset. I tried everything I could. I spent more than an hour trying to fix it. I could have been sick.

And he walked in, and I gave him “I’m sorry” puppy dog eyes and told him what I did. And all he said was, “oh, don’t worry about it, it’s not a big deal.”

Was he kidding me!?

No, he was not. He might have given me a hard time in weeks to come, but he just smiled and laughed, and went on.

Jim knew what was most important

I’m seeing a theme here. He was a happy man. So genuinely happy and content that the small trials of life didn’t seem to faze him.

I saw him disagree about different decisions or goings on, but never upset. He was great at looking at the big picture and keeping perspective on what was really important.

I think we all have that lesson to learn from him.

Easier said than done, no doubt. But he has inspired me to focus on what’s important and let the rest go.

People were so important to him. Sure, he was in the newspaper business, but really, he was in the people business… as we all should be.