Monday, July 1, 2024
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I wanted to add on my Eulogy speech for my big brother so everyone may read it and remember some of the wonderful times we had, and also so my PA family may read it as well. We'll be having services for him up here as well so his "Northern" family may pay their respects as well.
Hello everyone, my name is Michelle Slaybaugh and I am Jeffrey’s “Yankee baby sister”, as he liked to call me. My fondest memories with Jeff included the times he came up to visit during the summer, and we would always love having our Southern big brother up to see us. We’ve always known Jeff to have an awesome sense of humor, always left us with a smile or cracking up to the point of tears. If Jeff Foxworthy and Robin Williams had a comedic love child, it would be Jeff.
I remember the story of the first time Jeff took a flight to come see us and it was the first time he was ever on a plane. Of course of all places he had to sit, he had to see right at the wing of the plane. So as the place descended, we all know how the flaps start going up and down. Of course a panicked Jeff looked out the window and saw this happening… turbulence was getting hit… and you know Jeff, he can be very animated. Overhead the captain’s voice goes over the loud speaker, “Ladies and gentleman, please fasten your seatbelt.” And there was Jeff, tightening up his seatbelt as tight as he could while yelling, “Good lord the plane’s breaking apart, we’re going down!” That story always cracks me up.
There have always been time where Jeff thought he was hilarious, and me, not so much. Jeff loved thunderstorms and had a fascination with tornado’s, something we don’t have very often in PA. But wouldn’t you know, a week Jeff came up to visit we had a huge thunderstorm cell. Picture this, we were in the middle of Walmart in Gettysburg, PA and a siren goes off. They make an announcement for everyone to gather in the middle of the store to “bunker down”. I believe it was me, my Mom, and Jeff. Of course there was Jeff, cheesing from ear to ear, and I am absolutely terrified. I remember Jeff saying, “Oh groovy, it’s going to rip right through here.” So there we were, in the middle of WalMart, I’m clinging onto Mom, Jeff’s prancing and pacing around, smiling. And you can hear the wind absolutely howl and the torrential downpour of hail and rain smacking down on the roof. Then, the lights go out. It’s pitch black. You can hear everyone gasp and scream, and all I hear is Jeff yelling, “Show us your glory!! Rip this tin roof off!” I. Could. Have. Throttled. Him. Then the lights come back on, I’m crying at this point, Mom’s yelling at Jeff to knock it off, Jeff’s laughing. Such good times. He used to pick on her a lot. I remember he’d poke her sides, then she’d try to swat at him back, and always missed, which made Jeff laugh even more.
Jeff always had a knack of sending random texts as well. Toni, our cousin and who was always close to Jeff, wanted me to share a story of one of those random texts she got of Jeff’s antics. One thing about Jeff is if he finds out you don’t like something, he’s going to pick on you about it, out of love of course. That was his love language: laughter. So New Year’s day, Toni gets this random picture of Jeff’s big toe. And it just so happens that Toni’s biggest pet peeve is feet. He sends her this pic and captions it, “Does this nail look broke to you?” She responds, “Why would you send that dude??” He immediately facetimes her and was laughing so hard. I used to always get the random, “I’m reaching out to discuss your car’s extended warranty program” or a random thought or meme about our Dad.
Another fun fact: our cousin Becki’s kids think Santa Clause is Southern and that’s because Jeff would call them pretending to be Santa and making sure they were behaving. Of course the one year, Southern Santa told the kids they were getting an Xbox so of course Becki went out to get one and yelled at him. Becki was also very close with Jeff.
As we all grew up, visits became more sparse but they were some of the best times, including the times he came up in his truck and him and JR taking joy rides ramping the railroad tracks down the road, when we went to visit him and Elizabeth, them coming to see us, the EPIC family picnic we had the one year he visited which was a half day of golfing (which was a day of him and JR taking turns unbuckling each others bags off the golf cart and watching it fall off when they took off in the cart), which ended with Uncle John and Jeff wrestling and Jeff getting thrown in the pool… That was what we did when he came up to visit. We would just pass him from household to household so everyone could spend some time with him. Then there was the time him and Jackson surprised my Dad during our trip to Myrtle Beach with Deb, our step mom, and her kids. Jeff and Jackson came up the back and we had Dad go out to the back deck, and Dad was so happy to see Jeff walking up the stairs holding Jackson. He loved having all of us together. And of course our trip to Ocean Lakes camping with Jeff, Elizabeth, and Jackson. So many great memories.
Recently, we were planning on a Slaybaugh Family reunion for next year and Jeff was planning to come up to roast a pig and make his famous Perlow. In the group chat, Jeff kept exclaiming about the price of our “Northern pigs”, and kept asking, “Wait what?! This pig is dead right?? They know I don’t want a live one right?” The reunion all of the cousins were going to wear a picture of their Dad’s face on their shirt, and Jeff wanted ours to also have golf balls on it and say, “Our Dad like to play with his balls.”
The last message he sent us was a picture of a letter Jackson received to start taking college classes his Senior Year. He said, “Omg yall, look at what my boy is doing!” Jackson, your father was so very proud of you and loved you so very much. He’s so proud of the young man you are becoming.
I’m ending this now as a reminder to all of us to spend time with your loved ones. Send that random text message. Send that random foot picture. Just let them know how fiercely you love them.
Jeff, Jeff-thro, Big brother,
We love you so much and you will be missed. We’ll make sure to make the same great memories with Jackson as we did with you, and initiate him into our Slaybaugh clan. And as our cousin Becki and him used to say, stay groovy 100% (gr%vy).
on my Eulogy speech for my brother so everyone may read it, including his family up in in PA.