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I attended a funeral service today with my friend, for his father-in-law that died last week in a boating accident. Today would have been his birthday, he would have been 58 years old.

I'd only met him a few times, but he seemed like a nice guy, and was well known for being very helpful, and someone you could turn to for anything. One of the things that his family wanted was to have Lean on Me played during the service, as it was his favorite song.

The funeral home played the song, but at a very low volume. My friend and his brother-in-law asked them to turn the sound up, asking that they quote "blow the roof off," because that's the kind of guy they were honoring. The sound was turned up, but only a tiny bit, they refused to turn it louder.

So when the chorus came, we started singing, as loud as we could. And nearly everyone gathered joined in. It was emotional and epic, and all kinds of cool.

While I don't believe in an afterlife, I know that this moment will be a good memory for all of his friends and family, one that will stay with them for the rest of their lives.

That's so touching. I'm glad that his family will have that memory. And if he does still exist somewhere, somehow, I'm sure that he was grinning from ear to ear.