Gracias por tu servicio en Vietnam, Ralph Allan Schechter. Eres un gran hombre. Te echaremos muchísimo de menos. Todos te queremos y te honramos. Una vida bien vivida. Sabías exactamente cómo hacer que la gente sonriera y riera. Te has ido, pero nunca serás olvidado. Te saludo, estimado amigo. Te quiero.

Thank you for your service Mr. Allan Schechter. You’re a great man. You will be missed by so many. 🫡

You will be forever cherished and missed. Love you Ralphie. You were a great man. So glad to call you my friend. Rest in Peace and thank you sir for your service in Vietnam. My condolences to the family. You’re in my thoughts and prayers.

They say a man’s life is made up of a whole lot of moments. Some of them you remember forever, and some of them you don’t even realize are important until they’re gone. Ralph Schecter had a way of making those moments matter. Now, I ain’t no expert on life. I’ve seen some things, though. I went to Vietnam, and I learned that the world can be a mighty confusing place. I learned that sometimes you laugh when you’re scared, sometimes you cry when you’re happy, and sometimes the best thing you can do for another person is just sit beside them and let them know they ain’t alone. And I reckon that’s what makes a person like Ralph so special. It ain’t just the things he did, or the places he went, or the stories he left behind. It’s the way he made people feel when they were around him. You see, life is a little bit like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get. Some days you get the sweet kind, and some days you get the kind that’s a little bitter. Sometimes you get one with a soft center, and sometimes you bite into one and wonder who in the world thought that was a good idea. But the thing about chocolate is, it’s meant to be shared. And I think a good life is much the same way. Ralph shared something with the people around him. Maybe it was a laugh. Maybe it was a kind word. Maybe it was a helping hand when somebody needed one and didn’t know how to ask. Whatever it was, those things don’t disappear just because a person is no longer sitting in the chair where we expect to find him. I remember Vietnam, and I remember how the rain could come down so hard you could hardly see the person standing right beside you. In times like that, you learned what mattered. You didn’t care much about who had the fanciest things or who could tell the best stories. You cared about who stood by you. Who looked out for you. Who made you feel like you might just get through another day. And I reckon that’s a pretty good way to measure a man.

Not by how much he owned, but by how much he gave. Not by how loudly he spoke, but by how well he listened. Not by how long he lived, but by the lives he touched along the way. And Joseph Wilson touched lives. I know it’s hard to say goodbye. Seems to me that saying goodbye is one of the hardest things we ever have to do. Your heart keeps expecting to see somebody walk through the door, or hear their voice from the next room, or tell them something funny that happened that day. And then you remember, and for a little while, the world feels different. But maybe goodbye ain’t the only word we have for a time like this. Maybe we can say thank you. Thank you, Joseph, for the time we had with you. Thank you for the memories that still make us smile. Thank you for the moments that seemed ordinary back then but mean so much now. Thank you for being part of our lives, because things are different now that you’ve been here, and they would have been different if you hadn’t. I suppose everybody has to leave this world sometime. I just wish the world didn’t have to lose the people we love quite so soon, or that we could have one more afternoon with them, one more conversation, one more chance to tell them what they mean to us. But I guess that’s why we have memories. They let us keep a little piece of somebody, even when we can’t keep the whole person. So when you think of Joseph, don’t just think of today. Think of the good times. Think of the laughter. Think of the stories. Think of the little things he did that maybe he never even knew mattered. And when you open a box of chocolates, maybe take a moment to remember him, too. Pick one out, share it with somebody you love, and enjoy the sweetness while it’s there. Because if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that life keeps on moving. The sun comes up, the birds sing, and the world carries on. But the people we love leave something behind in us. A kindness. A lesson. A memory. A little piece of their heart that we carry.

Rest in Peace my dear friend. Thank you for your service.

Cyndi, David and Family,
I am so sorry when I heard about Alan. He was the most genuine man and  I truly loved him like my own Dad.  I am so grateful that he was in our lives and I knew how much he cared for my mom. Your dad Loved his family so very much and I pray you all will find peace in knowing that. Love to all of you, Regina and Jason Young (Beverly’s daughter)

Sorry for your loss, looks like a great life. Great guy.

Wanda and Darrell are good friends of Allan and Diane and Darrell took this picture of Allan at the VA hospital

OBITUARY

Ralph Allan Schechter

February 2, 1951 – October 22, 2026

Gebhart-Schmidt-Parramore Funeral Home

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