Lamb of city goes out like a Lion

                                                                                                          

It was fitting that on a cloudy, windy day last week a member of the Duncanville Lions Club let me know that his fellow Lion, longtime resident and community leader Wes Jespersen had passed away.

This friend said he had visited Wes in hospice and Wes had asked him to get a message to the Lions: He was getting stronger.

A few days later, on April 2, Wes Jespersen died. The friend relayed to me that Wes told his family he was tired after all, and at that point Wes Jespersen must have decided it was OK to take off his Lions’ pin.

 

I’m sure no one – perhaps especially not the Lions – was ready to see Wes go. But I have a feeling they understand why he did … he’d completed his Lions’ mission.

 

Through the years the Jespersen family, under the leadership and example of patriarch Wes – has contributed in countless ways to the city of Duncanville. Perhaps most notably by being the owners of Ben Franklin Apothecary, a staple on the city’s Main Street since 1969 (formerly located on Camp Wisdom from 1964-69).

 

I remember going there as a child in the ’70s, when the aisles were so crowded it was tough for even my small self to maneuver through all Ben Franklin’s was trying to offer. It was the epitome of a mom-and-pop five and dime, and how lucky I was to have experienced it. Not only because I can attest to the fact that things once were only five and 10 cents, but because I was a part of the city’s history just by being a Ben Franklin’s customer.

 

Fast forward to the 2000s, and I was fortunate enough to share a new-and-improved Ben Franklin’s with my own son. At age 3, Samuel loved nothing more than “shopping” the toy aisle, where he would remove some 20 plastic cars from shelves and proceed to race them down the hardwood floor.

More than once I apologized to Wes for Sam’s zealousness, always promising to leave the shelves in better condition than we found them.

 

“Don’t worry about it. That’s what toys are for!” Wes would reply, pointing out a few my son might want to add to his racing endeavors.

 

Last winter Wes called to thank me for including Ben Franklin’s in our “Favorite Things” Christmas section, in which I explained the store was really a time machine – where folks discovered hometowns still exist, over the five-cent candy bins or 1950s-style malts.

 

During that same call, Wes said he wanted to help two families I had been writing about who needed assistance during the holidays, and a couple days later I received two checks from him. He didn’t really know me, and he didn’t know the subjects of my story at all, but he still contributed of his resources.

 

Wes Jespersen was old school. He gave what he could, helped how he could and did things he didn’t have to do, all in the name of a better Duncanville and never expecting anything in return. Afterall, he was a Lion, and their motto is “to serve.”The clouds rolled in and the winds picked up last Wednesday because a lamb of God was going home. Thank you, Wes, for all you gave our home through your own deeds and through your family … no wonder you finally just became too tired.

 

Your legacy remains and we all acknowledge that even in death, you went out like a Lion.