Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, December 27, 1994 TAG: 9412270055
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But here at the newspaper's New River Bureau, Manuel was one of the gang.
Manuel was our maintenance man. He emptied our brimming trash cans, swept up the cake crumbs from our celebrations, cleaned the mud we tracked in from outside.
He never complained about our messiness.
To look at Manuel, you wouldn't think he was ailing .
He looked like a boxer - trim, muscular, agile.
He was a weight-lifter and a runner. He took care of himself. He was the kind of guy who made you suck in your gut when he passed by.
But he had a gentle spirit. When Manuel made his rounds in the newsroom late in the afternoon, reporters and editors stopped pounding keyboards long enough to share a few words with him. His quiet demeanor and warm greetings were always welcome, even under the pressure of meeting a deadline.
We lost Manuel the day after Thanksgiving. He died at Lewis-Gale Hospital after a three-year battle with cancer. He was 55.
Like a champ, he put up a good fight.
"Even when Manuel was sick, he was cheerful," remembered Brenda Farmer, an editorial assistant and receptionist at the bureau. "He was always upbeat about it."
Bureau chief Beth Obenshain visited him in the hospital a week before he died. Manuel's wife, Pat, and his teen-age son, Garrett, were keeping a vigil at his bedside.
When she came back with the news that Manuel wasn't going to beat the cancer this time, we felt helpless. We bustled around the newsroom, collecting wastebaskets and carrying them out to the dumpster. It was the only thing we could do.
Norman Hall, a long-time New River advertising man and a good friend of Manuel's, also visited at the hospital just before Thanksgiving.
"Everybody who saw Manuel experienced a blessing," Hall said. "He had no fear. He was truly at peace."
Manuel died in his wife's arms at 3 a.m. His wife said he was ready for his journey because his faith was strong.
One of the Hospice volunteers who had been close to Manuel said he talked of angels gathering around his bed.
He was an inspiration to his family and to people whose lives he touched - even if only briefly.
Manuel had worked at the bureau for the past eight years, said advertising manager Larry Ward, coming in evenings and weekends after working his day job at the Radford Army Ammunition Plant.
"He had a positive outlook about everything," Larry said. "He was someone you admired."
And he's someone we'll miss this holiday season.
by CNB