This is for you, Doug. I will never forget the moment I told you I was going to take over the DFJ for two months.

You rolled your eyes.

That was back in the spring of 2022.

This is for you, Loween, whose expressions I remember clearly when I presented at a Rotary meeting in the basement of the Second Street Emporium so very long ago.

I recall I was introducing my play “Afternoon.” I read from the dry research material I had gathered and, hoo boy, did your face tell a story. I think you would agree that dry is an understatement.

But then I began to tell a greater story, that of the beginning of this town. Sarah Brewer Bonebright’s voice seemed to flow through me. Truthfully, I had been keen on her book since I was a little girl skulking through my grandmother’s treasures. I grew up knowing the stories: That she was raised in a pioneer town founded by her father Wilson Brewer. That it was called Newcastle. And that it eventually would come to be known as Webster City.

Your eyes lit up when Sarah began to speak. I saw it.

Our story of Wilson Brewer, which is the story told by his loving daughter, is a story of what one man was able to accomplish in his lifetime. With his family, he built a home at the confluence of a river and a creek that would bear his name. Yearning to build a town, he traveled hundreds of miles east — much of it on foot — to sell the idea of Newcastle to other settlers.

They believed him and came.

In 1856, when James Buchanan was elected president, Wilson Brewer tried to collect on a wager over who would win. The other man, danged unhappy, stabbed Wilson Brewer. By the time everyone realized that the wound was fatal the other guy — his name was Prendergast — had left town.

Wilson Brewer had a vision, a dream, that this place would exist and he used the tools given to him to make that a reality. That is how we remember him.

Likewise, Doug.

Doug Getter came to Webster City via his love for Loween, who became his wife. Then he proceeded to build on what he saw before him. City Council. Rotary. Webster City Community Theatre. Riverview Early Learning project. Doug Getter gave his energy to all of them.

And like Wilson Brewer, he left this place better than he had found it.

Doug Getter’s funeral was last week. During it, a dear friend of his confided that Doug had wondered what was on the other side. Doug had asked, what awaits us when our spirits depart the mortal body?

Well, Doug knows that answer now.

But while he was living, he pushed forward, sharing his gifts wherever they made a difference.

Not because he was concerned about dying.

Doug Getter was concerned about living.

“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” Mark 8:36

Do your best.

Have a dream.

Follow your heart.

Give.

And always, always root your choices in goodness.

Make life matter.

Because, of course, we are all going to die.

Jane Curtis is editor of the Daily Freeman-Journal. She is an Iowa Newspaper Association Master Columnist.