Dawn created an account, looking to post this letter but for some reason never got access to post so I'm posting this reponse to all the AZ crew on her behalf:
Hi,
I’ve attempted to write this numerous times, but it’s been challenging for me as I’m sure you can imagine. I did want to talk to you though. For starters, I wanted to thank you for beautiful and sincere condolences. It’s no small thing to me. I feel your well wishes and I thank you! I also offer you my condolences. It sounds like some of you were pretty deeply affected by this loss and I’m sorry for you too.
Your community was truly meaningful to Kevin. Looking back now, I am thinking that he probably wasn’t feeling very well for some time. He found it harder and harder to get his workouts done and maybe he spent more time nesting at home then usual. Even though he may not have been feeling very well. He was Happy! Maybe we knew that we were playing on borrowed time because the last number of years were so Damn good! I am so glad that he had your community of people to “Hang out”with even when it may have been a bit hard for him to leave his office chair.
I was so pleased to see that you all knew what was so cool about Kevin. You really hit the nail on the head. I always knew that my beloved was cool as s**t but I had no idea that EVERYONE else could see it!
I loved reading that Tate saw what great teamwork Kevin and I had. Kevin used to tell me that I was the best business partner he ever had and that we could “ham and egg it” better than anyone. To me he was an amazing life partner, business partner, mentor and self discovery partner. I met him when I was a green pea liner (aka – entry level sales person) in the car business and he taught me how to sell cars. He taught me so well that I was running dealerships within 2 years. He gave me the “tools” for selling then he convinced me that I was strong enough, brave enough and smart enough to pull it off. Who knew? I sure didn’t. I think I became a successful salesperson because every time I sold a car, I would get to deal with Kevin. He was the finance manager and all deals went through him. My entire motivation for selling cars was to get to the Finance office and see the Brew. Best of the best was to get the last deal of the day because then, once the customer went home, it was just he and I in the dealership. - Finance guy has to lock up? - I’d be happy to help! - When Kevin left the dealership a year later, it was too late – I was good at it so I figured I may as well stick with it even though there was now no Brewer bonus attached to each sale.
Auto sales was a painful industry for us so, about 10 years later, we broke free together. We didn’t know what we wanted to do to earn money so we held a meeting (at the beach) to create a mission statement. After a couple hours of honest discussion, we had our mission statement. here it is...................... “Joy First”............ That was it! From then on all decisions were easy. We’d Just ask ourselves “will this decision add to our joy or take away from our joy” and act accordingly. For us, Ebay sales was the obvious answer for our business. He did his part and I did mine we worked super-duper long hours, not many days off, but we were always pretty darn happy! Kevin liked to quote Jason Mraz with “you don’t need a vacation when there’s nothing to escape from” and that was our life – a working vacation.
You also mention that he was supportive and cool. Ding, ding, ding, you hit the target! Give the man prize! Exactly! Even when I accidentally broke an expensive piece of inventory or crashed the car, he didn’t even need to forgive - He didn’t get angry in the first place (3railkick noticed that –> not an angry dude). He went straight into comfort Duck (that’s me) mode. He was SO supportive! If I wanted to try a new thing he was always encouraging. He wanted to know all the details (even when the subject was soil!! (for my horticulture classes)) and then, he was there to praise me for my good results. My results were always good because I was addicted to his praise. From the beginning in the car business to the end in our Ebay business, I always wanted to be the best for him, to impress him. I’ve been making some pretty intense business decisions this last week. Kinda gnarley for me, because naturally, I left all that icky decision stuff to him. I heard a voice in my head say “if I make a mistake it doesn’t matter as much now, because Kevin’s not here to see it”. Which is really funny because he was so kind and understanding when I made mistakes. It wasn’t fear of his anger (not an angry guy). It wasn’t for lack of praise, he praised and thanked me all the time. It was more like flirtation for me. I wanted to Dazzle my Kevie-Wevie-Doodle-All-the-day with Previously unheard of acts of human strongatude.
Thank you Tate. You were such a good friend to him. I know he truly loved and respected you.
Sfleinen noticed that Kevin had a lot of friends. Boy oh boy is that ever true. I had no idea. This last week has been overwhelming. So many truly saddened people have shared their feelings with me. Every neighbor has a story about something funny Kevin said to them or a kindness Kevin had shown. I think, darn near every employee in every establishment we frequented for business and pleasure had a good Kevin story. So many people have been telling me of their love for Kevin. I get it! I know the kind of man he was! I just never knew so many people knew it too.
Phil dade, Pt109 noticed his wit and wisdom. That was the first thing I noticed about him too. I was so attracted to his wit and wisdom! The instant I met him in the car business. I decided that he would be My Man. It took two months of me hitting on him pretty hard to close the deal for our first date – but he was well worth the chase. And that first date was Legendary!
SJDinPHX noticed that Kevin was fair and reasonable and understood human nature. I completely agree. Kevin decided that our business policy would be returns are ok for any reason - because if both parties aren’t happy with the deal, then the deal is no fun and not worth doing. He understood that two people could see the same thing two different ways and he was cool with that. No matter how vile the customer became. His response was always the same. “I am so sorry if you are not pleased with your purchase. Please feel free to return if for a full refund. If you feel the error was ours, please let me know and we will refund the shipping both ways”. It didn’t matter who was right or wrong. What mattered was that all parties were happy in the end and that the issue was resolved quickly and graciously so we could get back to singing and laughing and feeling groovy.
Lfigueroa – I’m sure you’re right. Kevin was your friend.
8-ball Rat said “He was a genuine, helpful, sincerely great individual...with a personal character all too rare these days.” - Yep! I couldn’t agree with you more.
Classiccues said “he was always upbeat.” Totally true. He was a happy man!
Black Balled – I thought adding “good sir” was pretty darn eloquent!
PinkLady – Love to you!
Targuy – I know that Kevin really enjoyed his dealings with you. and that he considered you a good friend. Thank you for the flowers.
KoolKat9lives – Your words touch me. I’m sorry for you loss too. It sounds like you guys were fun playmates. You said Humble. That’s a word I hadn’t considered for Kevin. I think you may be right, but I’m thinking humble in the “I’m cool but it’s no big deal” kinda way.
driven – I love that! The conversations I had with him made me a better person too!
jgobigred – your Paypal comment made me lol!
ibuycues – Will! There you are! Kevin spoke so well of you.
Kickin Chicken – Thanks for the call. It is always good to hear a Kevin story.
Jay, thanks for the call. Kevin spoke so highly of you. I know he considered you a good friend.
Junksecret - Joe – No words to express how much you and your brother have kept me held together this last week! Friends like you two prove what an awesome guy Kevin was because only such an awesome guy can have such awesome friends. Thank you both to the moon and back.
Kevin was a much greater love than I ever expected life to give me. I wasn’t smug about it (maybe a little bit smug) but I knew that what we shared was the kind of relationship that so many people long for. I was always sensible of how lucky I was. I loved his face, his eyes, I loved his eye lashes, I loved his voice (I can still her him calling my name in my head.....”Duuuuuuuuck”), I loved his childishness and our play dates, I loved his mind, I loved to hear him laugh, I loved to hear him talk to the cats and I loved to witness his relationship with life. I loved it all!! It was truly heaven on earth!
Love you guys!
Really!
Duck
One more thing, If you feel like getting together to celebrate Kevin’s life, you are welcome. We will be having a casual little celebration of Kevin’s life at my sisters house in Northridge (PM Joe for more details) starting at 6:30 on Sunday, July 13th.
I'm about to post a few images in the Kvinbrwr R.I.P. stickied thread, hoping not to dilute Dawn's beautiful words.
Joe
Hi,
I’ve attempted to write this numerous times, but it’s been challenging for me as I’m sure you can imagine. I did want to talk to you though. For starters, I wanted to thank you for beautiful and sincere condolences. It’s no small thing to me. I feel your well wishes and I thank you! I also offer you my condolences. It sounds like some of you were pretty deeply affected by this loss and I’m sorry for you too.
Your community was truly meaningful to Kevin. Looking back now, I am thinking that he probably wasn’t feeling very well for some time. He found it harder and harder to get his workouts done and maybe he spent more time nesting at home then usual. Even though he may not have been feeling very well. He was Happy! Maybe we knew that we were playing on borrowed time because the last number of years were so Damn good! I am so glad that he had your community of people to “Hang out”with even when it may have been a bit hard for him to leave his office chair.
I was so pleased to see that you all knew what was so cool about Kevin. You really hit the nail on the head. I always knew that my beloved was cool as s**t but I had no idea that EVERYONE else could see it!
I loved reading that Tate saw what great teamwork Kevin and I had. Kevin used to tell me that I was the best business partner he ever had and that we could “ham and egg it” better than anyone. To me he was an amazing life partner, business partner, mentor and self discovery partner. I met him when I was a green pea liner (aka – entry level sales person) in the car business and he taught me how to sell cars. He taught me so well that I was running dealerships within 2 years. He gave me the “tools” for selling then he convinced me that I was strong enough, brave enough and smart enough to pull it off. Who knew? I sure didn’t. I think I became a successful salesperson because every time I sold a car, I would get to deal with Kevin. He was the finance manager and all deals went through him. My entire motivation for selling cars was to get to the Finance office and see the Brew. Best of the best was to get the last deal of the day because then, once the customer went home, it was just he and I in the dealership. - Finance guy has to lock up? - I’d be happy to help! - When Kevin left the dealership a year later, it was too late – I was good at it so I figured I may as well stick with it even though there was now no Brewer bonus attached to each sale.
Auto sales was a painful industry for us so, about 10 years later, we broke free together. We didn’t know what we wanted to do to earn money so we held a meeting (at the beach) to create a mission statement. After a couple hours of honest discussion, we had our mission statement. here it is...................... “Joy First”............ That was it! From then on all decisions were easy. We’d Just ask ourselves “will this decision add to our joy or take away from our joy” and act accordingly. For us, Ebay sales was the obvious answer for our business. He did his part and I did mine we worked super-duper long hours, not many days off, but we were always pretty darn happy! Kevin liked to quote Jason Mraz with “you don’t need a vacation when there’s nothing to escape from” and that was our life – a working vacation.
You also mention that he was supportive and cool. Ding, ding, ding, you hit the target! Give the man prize! Exactly! Even when I accidentally broke an expensive piece of inventory or crashed the car, he didn’t even need to forgive - He didn’t get angry in the first place (3railkick noticed that –> not an angry dude). He went straight into comfort Duck (that’s me) mode. He was SO supportive! If I wanted to try a new thing he was always encouraging. He wanted to know all the details (even when the subject was soil!! (for my horticulture classes)) and then, he was there to praise me for my good results. My results were always good because I was addicted to his praise. From the beginning in the car business to the end in our Ebay business, I always wanted to be the best for him, to impress him. I’ve been making some pretty intense business decisions this last week. Kinda gnarley for me, because naturally, I left all that icky decision stuff to him. I heard a voice in my head say “if I make a mistake it doesn’t matter as much now, because Kevin’s not here to see it”. Which is really funny because he was so kind and understanding when I made mistakes. It wasn’t fear of his anger (not an angry guy). It wasn’t for lack of praise, he praised and thanked me all the time. It was more like flirtation for me. I wanted to Dazzle my Kevie-Wevie-Doodle-All-the-day with Previously unheard of acts of human strongatude.
Thank you Tate. You were such a good friend to him. I know he truly loved and respected you.
Sfleinen noticed that Kevin had a lot of friends. Boy oh boy is that ever true. I had no idea. This last week has been overwhelming. So many truly saddened people have shared their feelings with me. Every neighbor has a story about something funny Kevin said to them or a kindness Kevin had shown. I think, darn near every employee in every establishment we frequented for business and pleasure had a good Kevin story. So many people have been telling me of their love for Kevin. I get it! I know the kind of man he was! I just never knew so many people knew it too.
Phil dade, Pt109 noticed his wit and wisdom. That was the first thing I noticed about him too. I was so attracted to his wit and wisdom! The instant I met him in the car business. I decided that he would be My Man. It took two months of me hitting on him pretty hard to close the deal for our first date – but he was well worth the chase. And that first date was Legendary!
SJDinPHX noticed that Kevin was fair and reasonable and understood human nature. I completely agree. Kevin decided that our business policy would be returns are ok for any reason - because if both parties aren’t happy with the deal, then the deal is no fun and not worth doing. He understood that two people could see the same thing two different ways and he was cool with that. No matter how vile the customer became. His response was always the same. “I am so sorry if you are not pleased with your purchase. Please feel free to return if for a full refund. If you feel the error was ours, please let me know and we will refund the shipping both ways”. It didn’t matter who was right or wrong. What mattered was that all parties were happy in the end and that the issue was resolved quickly and graciously so we could get back to singing and laughing and feeling groovy.
Lfigueroa – I’m sure you’re right. Kevin was your friend.
8-ball Rat said “He was a genuine, helpful, sincerely great individual...with a personal character all too rare these days.” - Yep! I couldn’t agree with you more.
Classiccues said “he was always upbeat.” Totally true. He was a happy man!
Black Balled – I thought adding “good sir” was pretty darn eloquent!
PinkLady – Love to you!
Targuy – I know that Kevin really enjoyed his dealings with you. and that he considered you a good friend. Thank you for the flowers.
KoolKat9lives – Your words touch me. I’m sorry for you loss too. It sounds like you guys were fun playmates. You said Humble. That’s a word I hadn’t considered for Kevin. I think you may be right, but I’m thinking humble in the “I’m cool but it’s no big deal” kinda way.
driven – I love that! The conversations I had with him made me a better person too!
jgobigred – your Paypal comment made me lol!
ibuycues – Will! There you are! Kevin spoke so well of you.
Kickin Chicken – Thanks for the call. It is always good to hear a Kevin story.
Jay, thanks for the call. Kevin spoke so highly of you. I know he considered you a good friend.
Junksecret - Joe – No words to express how much you and your brother have kept me held together this last week! Friends like you two prove what an awesome guy Kevin was because only such an awesome guy can have such awesome friends. Thank you both to the moon and back.
Kevin was a much greater love than I ever expected life to give me. I wasn’t smug about it (maybe a little bit smug) but I knew that what we shared was the kind of relationship that so many people long for. I was always sensible of how lucky I was. I loved his face, his eyes, I loved his eye lashes, I loved his voice (I can still her him calling my name in my head.....”Duuuuuuuuck”), I loved his childishness and our play dates, I loved his mind, I loved to hear him laugh, I loved to hear him talk to the cats and I loved to witness his relationship with life. I loved it all!! It was truly heaven on earth!
Love you guys!
Really!
Duck
One more thing, If you feel like getting together to celebrate Kevin’s life, you are welcome. We will be having a casual little celebration of Kevin’s life at my sisters house in Northridge (PM Joe for more details) starting at 6:30 on Sunday, July 13th.
I'm about to post a few images in the Kvinbrwr R.I.P. stickied thread, hoping not to dilute Dawn's beautiful words.
Joe
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