Vincent Ray Ragels

It's been six weeks now since the worst day of my life- the morning I held my Vinnie's hand tightly as he slipped away peacefully to be with his Heavenly Father. I am thankful to have been his wife for 39 years. I am only now able to write a few words to honor a wonderful man, husband and father. We got married at Circus Circus in Las Vegas, NV, on August 13th, 1985, and we jokingly said many times it was truly a three-ring circus after that.

We have two wonderful sons, Steven and Christopher, and Vincent was extremely proud to be their father. He was definitely a family man, always making sure we didn't sit idle very long. He introduced me to camping Labor Day weekend 1986, when our oldest son was only three months old. I remember Steven being all bundled up in a bright orange Bronco's outfit. Vincent wanted to make sure I would LOVE camping as much as he did, so he put sheets on the thin mattress in our red and white striped canvas pop-up camper- - yes, it looked like a circus tent. He had real flowers on the table, and I believe steak for supper. He was no dummy. We were supposed to go camping that Memorial Day weekend, but silly me went into labor and he never let me forget that. And that was the beginning of 35 years of camping. The last 15 years we were snowbirds and spent winters in Pensacola, Florida. He loved the heat, humidity and beaches.

I love Hallmark movies, and I had said to our son, Christopher, while he was here "Wouldn't it be nice if at Christmas I received something that dad had ordered me?" Well, I was going through his dresser drawer looking for something and found a card he had bought me for my upcoming birthday. He hadn't signed it yet, but he made the effort to buy one before his surgery on September 30th. He passed away on October 4th and my birthday is on October 31st, Halloween. He often said that was the only day of the year he could call me a witch and get away with it. I also found three Happy Halloween cards, one for each of our sons and one for me (we never bought Halloween cards for each other). All of those are now our "Hallmark Moment" cards that we will treasure and keep forever.

Vincent was very proud of his military career, serving 20 years in the United States Air Force. He often talked about traveling 13 countries and even having an audience with the Pope. Not too bad for a young man from Edgemont, SD, population just over 1,000. He worked as a tour guide briefly at the Denver Mint after retiring from the Air Force. After that he worked for the VA in Hot Springs, SD until he was medically retired in 2003.

I always called him my walking miracle. He had a triple bypass at the age of 42, had three or four heart attacks after that, he had 15 stints, was a stage 3 colon cancer survivor and had stage 3 chronic kidney disease. He went in for a total knee replacement on September 30th which was successful. However, he started experiencing various cardiac events and just couldn't come back from that. I know God had a plan for him and again, I feel very blessed we had him for another 32 years after his triple bypass surgery. He may not have been able to try out his new knee here on earth, but I'm sure he is chasing angels in heaven. Be at peace, my Love, we miss you every day.