Shane and Crystal
The journey of Shane Eubanks and Crystal Alred
My papaw, Jim Reagan, walked into the arms of the Lord on Sunday, February 28, 2010. Many people may remember him from his days in construction, as mayor of Pigeon Forge, on the board of directors at local bank, the courthouse, BP Station, FOP, Scottish Rite, or having the fastest cars down at Tarwater straights. I was blessed to know him as “Papaw.”
And what an amazing Papaw he was. I know he dealt with a lot of junk in his days, but he never brought his troubles through the threshold of his home. He always came in smilin’ and whistlin’…he was solid as an oak. As a matter of fact, his casket was made of oak. We chose it because….well….it was the one Mamaw liked the most!! The oak, though, was very fitting the way he lived his life as he stood firm through whatever life dealt him.
Papaw loved to help people. I may never know the extent of all of the people he has impacted over the years. I caught a glimpse of them at the funeral home, but I am certain there are so many more that Papaw has helped at some point in their lives whether he gave them something, did something for them, pulled a favor, etc. He would do anything for anyone.
Papaw often reminded me of a quote I once heard by famous UCLA basketball coach John Wooden who said, “You can’t live a perfect day until you do something for someone who will never be able to repay you.” Well, Papaw lived many perfect days….and many people didn’t repay him. But ya know…that never stopped him from continuing to give…and help….and pull favors.
He lived to help others.
He gave until his heart literally couldn’t give any more.
Ecclesiastes 9:10 says, “Whatever your hands find to do, do it with all your might…”
Papaw exemplified that verse as he would do everything he could for anyone he could. He loved all of us.
We’ve been blessed to have had Jim Reagan as a part of our lives.
And I’m extremely honored to have known him as “Papaw.”
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Jim Reagan was and still is my friend and still iin memory. I only knew Jim for about four years. He was always smiling, never complaining and always a gentleman. He loved his family and was good to many people. I will miss my friend! David Alred Cartersville Ga.
Shane, you are blessed with such a wonderful way of honoring your papaw, my dad, who couldn’t have been a better person…. It is so true about how he helped people and i found out more about him from his friends at the courthouse in the past few days that mom and i have had to go and take care of all the matters dealing with probate….. People said dad would be sitting in the coffee room and various other places and someone came in talking about how they were needing some money to pay a bill , etc, who knows, but they told me dad would just get his wallet out and give them some money and just say “pay me whenever you can”, knowing he probably wouldn’t see it. The same way with cars, I couldn’t count the times that he sold cars on credit, and some would take them out of state, and never paid him, and never got the car back, or they would blow the motor up and bring it back months later and said , here is the car back, it’s not working, (they had forgot to put oil in it)!!!! and then months later, they would come back and wanted another car, and he would sell them one again, and the same thing happened again, this guy ended up doing this three times to Dad, but that is how Dad was, the guy had little kids and he felt sorry for him. I could go on and on about the car business, but that would take months….
I was so blessed to have him with me 51 yrs. of my life and growing up, all the things he bought for me and the clothes, food ,along with my fun things to drive in high school really means more to me now, because, i wasn’t able to do for my own son, which if i could have i would have given him all i could. Dad took care of Shane as his own son, after losing his own son at the age of 4, i think God brought Shane into this world for mom and dad , and if not for Dad and Mom , Shane wouldn’t have had his first vehicle, nice clothes to wear, etc…. Dad was so proud of you Shane, if you only knew how much he would look at your pictures he had sitting by his recliner and would always say, look there at by little buddy…(it was the picture of you in dad’s cowboy hat” and you were not even a year old yet)…. I know that you know how proud he was of you and so happy for your wonderful wife and son……. He worked hard for all he had, starting out at $1.00 an hour when he got married in 1957, and you are a hard worker just like him…..you made him sooooooooooo proud………. And i am extremely proud and blessed to have a son who lives for God and his family….. I love you ….Mom