Danny - you will be remembered for being one of the kindest and most thoughtful persons around.  Thanks to my brother David we knew you.  You were his best friend for all these years.  Even through your illness you still asked how our mom was doing.   Our thoughts and prayers are with your family.

Uncle Danny, I will always cherish the times we had together; the numerous vacations that you took me with you, going horseback riding, and swimming together in an ice-cold lake.  I remember the lake was so cold and I made the comment, "My face is killing me."  And with your quick wit and comeback, you stated, "It's killing me, too!"  Hee-Haw!  I always enjoyed babysitting Kellie and Amanda on Sunday nights while you and Sharon went bowling and the extra money was always appreciated. It will not be the same the next time I come home.  You and Uncle David were always my first visitors to mom's house.  I made a promise to myself a long time ago that when the boys were grown and on their own that I would come home more often.  I'm sure glad I stuck to that promise.  The time I spent with you at Thanksgiving, again in March, and again over the 4th of July will always and forever be with me.  Mitch and I are addicted to "Under the Dome."  Thanks for making me watch it with you when I was home this last time and I'm sorry you weren't able to finish out the first season.  Every time I watch an episode I will be thinking of you.  Every time I pitch a horshoe I will be thinking of you.  Mike and the boys are devastated with your passing.  You and Mike had a lot in common; the love of chess, playing backgammon, and pitching horshoes.  I remember when y'all came to visit us when we lived in Longview.  You and Mike played backgammon for hours.  You taught Mitch how to play horseshoes and he has loved the game ever since.  Uncle Danny, you were a gift and blessing to us all.  Life will not be the same without you and you will be so dearly missed.  And Dave, I loved your essay.  It made me laugh and cry at the same time.  Danny was ever so fortunate to have a friend like you, as you were ever so fortunate to have a friend like Danny.  Lifelong friends are rare these days and I know you and Danny shared a special bond that many of us will never experience.  Aunt Sharon, Kellie, Amanda, and Scotty, you are in my thoughts and prayers.  Below is a poem, author unknown, that expresses what I think we all feel.

God saw you getting tired, 
The cure was not to be 
He wrapped you in His loving Arms, 
And whispered "Come to Me" 
You suffered much in silence, 
Your spirit did not bend 
You faced your pain with courage, 
Until the very end 
You tried so hard to stay with us 
Your fight was not in vain 
God took you to His loving Home
And freed you from your pain 
A golden heart stopped beating, 
Two working hands at rest 
God broke our hearts to prove to us, 
HE ONLY TAKES THE BEST 

I love you and my heart aches for you, Uncle Danny, and what gives me comfort is knowing that you are being embraced in the arms of our Lord and that He is with you.

Michelle

Amanda, please accept my most heartfelt sympathy for your loss, my thoughts are with you and your family during this difficult time.

As the days and weeks pass, and as you return to life's routine, may you continue to feel comforted by the love and support of family and friends.

To the family of Danny Joe, to his wife Sharon, his children and his grandchildren; also his brother Donnie and sisters Phyllis, Pam and Linda,

I want you to know that from day one upon learning of Danny's diagnosis of cancer, I have prayed everyday that God would in all his mercy, comfort and strengthen you all.  My prayer was that Danny would receive Christ as his savior.  I rejoiced when I heard the good news that he had received Christ in his heart.  Many were the prayers there in Indiana and here in West Virginia for Danny Joe's healing.  Family, God's way of healing Danny Joe was by beckoning the angels of heaven to bear his soul into the portals of glory.  Let us rejoice in the fact that his bodily suffering is over and that he is now in the presence of the Lord.  Read I Corinthians 5:8.  I am and will be praying for God to comfort and strengthen each one of you as you prepare for the wake, funeral and burial services.  It never gets easy to say goodbye to those we love and hold dear to our hearts. All our love!

MAY THE ALMIGHTY GOD;COMFORT N STRENGTH YOUR FAMILY.TO HELP YOU COPE THROW ALL YOUR BURDEN ON HIM HE WILL SUSTAIN YOU.PSALMS 55.22.FROM CH.IL.

Danny,

You will be missed and I love you man. So happy that our dashes crossed in life and made mine a better one. Will always remember your contagious zest for life.

Mike Boerner and sons (SA,TX.)

I wrote this bit of an essay/email to Danny this past Easter. 

My thoughts have been with Danny the past weeks, ever since he told his circle of friends what he was dealing with. I think he knew when he wrote that email he may not make it through his ordeal. He was upbeat. He was realistic. He was thankful.

It is hard to believe so many years have gone by.

We first met in second grade at the old McKinley school in East Chicago, our teacher was Miss Williams. Man, that school seemed like a museum, I remember its hallways being so long, tall, wide and the gym even more so. Can still remember playing the old dodge ball game we called Red Rover. And I remember Danny's time delivering newspapers. Or working at Van Tils. I always felt he was a step ahead of me in terms of maturity.

We had a bond that never needed expressing. It just was. Our paths meandered, but always crossed. Little League saw him on one team, I on another. He got a car first. He got married first. But it didn't matter - we kept in touch.

I remember so many times walking or biking over to his parents place on Indianapolis Boulevard in that second floor place. We'd to over to the park and shag some fly balls like kids would do in those days. Man, we enjoyed the outdoors.

And I still recall that old car he first got - it was a miracle of science - I think he never needed a key to start it and I think there were times he thought it would run even without gas.

We'd hang out in the hallways at Roosevelt. Danny, Mike Karris and myself I think peddled newspapers - maybe it was the Wall Street Journal or something in an old small room. We hung out to start the day. Or that Latin Class with Mrs. Carpenter. Man, the best garlic bread I ever had was at those toga parties we had as part of that class. Mom never could quite accept the fact that I had to wear a toga and not some kind of suit. But I still remember those events.

Then Danny and I took on the task of being responsible for the towels used in the gym classes - making sure they got bagged up for cleaning and trying to make sure they came back. Oh, that was a challenge as we learned we couldn't take things for granted in dealing with someone else. We screwed up a bit, but we survived.

Then I think the funniest thing that ever happened was during a lunch hour in the balcony at Roosevelt. We were eating our lunch as we always did. But for some reason this day, we were playing milk carton hockey with an apple if you can visualize that near the top of the gym. There was a class down below - Coach Dudek was taking roll call of those guys lined up in their uniforms. Suddenly, one of us shot the apple and it got past us, then started bouncing down the rows, down the stairs and finally, bounced over the railing and well, I think it missed Coach Dudek's bald spot by maybe just a foot or two. Of course, we sat there like two little angels and the coach looked upwards with a glare. It maybe took about five minutes before we busted out in a giant laugh, perhaps of relief. Don't think we ever did that again.

There's a picture I think that still hangs in EC Central of the team picture that was taken at the EC Washington gym after that 1970 team won the sectionals and if you looked real close, you could see Danny and I standing next to each other in the balcony railing behind the team. That was quite a year. We made it to Lafayette - sat next to each other during those games. We still talk about that shot we saw Jim Bradley make that afternoon. Jim went up in the air to take a shot but the defender got in his face and in mid-air - he flipped the ball from his right hand to his left hand then shot it and swished it for two points. We looked at each other and could not believe what we had just seen. We scrambled from behind in both games that meant a bus trip to Hinkle Fieldhouse for the final games.

We rode the bus together and yeah, we lived that movie "Hoosiers" that weekend - good ole Roosevelt won the title and we were undefeated. We even got a piece of the net from the game in Lafayette - Chris Kouros gave us a piece of that net. I still have mine. And all the Hammond Times sports sections.

Then Danny met Sharon and his life changed. I went to Valpo and we seemed to see less of each other for a time. I remember attending his wedding. Mike Karris was his best man. I see how I was dressed back then - I looked like something out of an old Italian mobster movie with those red, white, black plaid sports jacket, dark red shirt and some garish tie. Not to mention the nerdy glasses.

I remember visiting him and Sharon and the kids so many times at their home in Hammond. Man, I think we kept John's Pizzeria in business. I could never beat him at pool - heck, the way I shot, it wasn't normal physics. Ping Pong was the same story. Basketball too. I mean, you would think that being a bit thinner and nimbler I might be able to do better, but for some reason, he knew how to set himself up and use his weight to his advantage. I think tennis was where maybe I started to even things up a bit. But even that was a struggle. Golf - he could boom it off the tee. I struggled and later in life learned to avoid taking the scenic tour of the golf course and just keep it on the fairway using the irons.

I have to apologize for the language Kelly learned early on. There were times she would be in the basement with us playing pool and yeah, we'd use a few four letter words. But one day Kelly started repeating them. He tried to look stern but we both started cracking up.

One Sunday afternoon I think it was we were in the living room having that usual large cheese pizza and watching an All In the Family re-run. Archie was sitting in his easy chair and Edith was in one of her long meandering dialogues that made no sense to Archie and driving him up the wall. Then he mimed like he had a pistol and spun it like he was putting bullets in the gun and then raised his hand to point it to his head as if he was going to put himself out this misery. For whatever reason, we both fell of the sofa laughing until it hurt.

I remember once going over to his mom's place - in Hammond I think it was and well, she had made the best rolls I had ever tasted - parker house rolls I think they were called. I think that's where I first met a young girl named Robin. And she turned out to be one of those people that become a nice part of your life, even if you don't know it at the time.

During those years, I was traveling more than a traveling shoe salesman. But somehow I managed to squeeze in being a part of the Sunday night bowling team with Danny and his wife and for a time, Robin. I may have had to take off early on Monday for some place in the country, but it was always fun to look forward to those few hours of just being with friends and having some fun.

I remember shagging fly balls with Danny at a park I can't remember, but do remember the trees and the grass and just enjoying the outdoors. I remember the times we got to play tennis together and you and your sister Michelle joined us. Life just seemed like out of a Rockwell painting. Good times. Good friends. Good memories.

Oh yeah, I did a bone head thing one afternoon. We were playing basketball or something at a different park or a school. And instead of turning my car around to exit the lot, for whatever reason, I drove my car down the school's gravel relay track and wouldn't you know it, one of Hammond's finest saw that and proceeded to stop me and give us a lecture. No ticket. But that stuck with us as one of those moments in time.

We'd always stop at McDonald's for a Coke. For some reason, the combination of ice and the soda always hit the spot for us. And for me, it's the way my weekends start. Or any long drive I have to make.

I remember vaguely that he and Sharon made it out to California where I lived at the time. I remember attending a Cincinnati Reds game with them in Cincinnati as well. And well, you know we had to have a bet last year when the Reds played the Giants in the playoffs. Needless to say, the Giants were unreal and ended up World Series champs.

Danny was there to help me that day that my life changed - I had accepted an offer to move to Colorado and leave home. It was not a pleasant time as it took my family by surprise. But it was something that had been building inside me to find my way in life. Danny came over and helped me load up the U-Haul trailer. We were no longer just a few minutes away but we still had that bond.

I made it back to Indiana a few times and we took up a new game - horseshoes. And just like pool, I ended up being a little unorthodox with my toss. I can still see him bowing his head and shaking his head in being confounded in how I did that. Heck, if you were to beat him at a game, you had to do it out of the box so to speak.

When I married Lorna, we made a trip back to Indiana to introduce her to the rest of my family. But the one thing I made sure of - she got to meet Danny and Sharon and his family as well during that trip.

But in 2011, it seemed that the reality of life was starting to affect all of us. I came home to visit mom since she had suffered a mini-stroke. Mortality was staring us in the face. I got to enjoy a nice Sunday dinner with Danny and his family and Robin as well, who was undergoing her own trials. Danny had is own share as well. And little did I know that after I left, the foreclosure crisis would become personal.

And you know, as good as I am with maps, and technology, I really screwed up trying to leave Danny and Sharon's home in Crown Point every time I visited them. I just could never retrace how I got there and get back home to mom's without adding an extra half-hour trying to figure out where in the heck I was. But I'm not complaining, it was part of the memories and enjoying the moments together again.

Danny and I were part of that initial group of guys that started the Kiwanis Key Club at Roosevelt to serve our local community as well, similar to the Knights of Columbus fraternity that I have belonged to for several years. The Knights have a motto or phrase - Tempus Fugit Memento More. Time Flies. Remember Death. We know not the hour or day, but it will occur. And we try to be there for our fellow brothers. Danny was like one of the knights - his heart was - giving and serving.

We should all be so lucky in our lives to have such a friend. And no greater gift could you have from God.

Rest in Peace my friend ... we'll shag fly balls again or duel in pool or ping pong in another time, another place.

Our prayers and condolences to Danny and his family.

My deepest condolences to all the family. I've known Danny for almost 50 years and am a better person for it. A good man that loved Jesus and a good example on how to live your life. I pray for comfort for his family, and will see him again one day in glory.

OBITUARIO

Danny Joe Harris

24 agosto, 1953 – 8 septiembre, 2013

Kuiper Funeral Home

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