Monday, May 20, 2024
Tim, you were always the independent and adventurous soul going wherever life took you. We send our condolences to your family Alisa, David and Mila, and Alex.
I am thankful for my many memories of you and I growing up together in Michigan. One of my earliest memories is when you, Candice and I were baptized as Free Methodists by our great grandfather Stedman in Detroit. We weren’t too appreciative of having our heads immersed in the basin of Holy Water. Like when we snuck out in the early morning to play in the deep snow in Oak Park when you were 3 and me 4 and you got stuck in the snow by a fire hydrant. Or playing little league baseball and football together. Spending summers together living on the water on our parents boat with you, Douglas and I together in the cramped “captain’s quarters” on the Shangri-La. The many winters skiing with the family in northern Michigan, especially the time when we were downhilling under a chairlift showing off for the girls and colliding spectacularly when we lost track of each other. Working together in the family furnace business with me doing the engineering and you running the shop. Joining Colleen & I as young adults for Saturday night parties and ordering way too much after-party food at the Jack in the Box on the way home. I am sad that our many mutual adventures dwindled when you and I parted close companionship in Iowa upon the demise of the Kozma Company there. You went west to California to start your new career in the metal building industry while I went back east to continue my career as a furnace engineer in the late 1970’s.
In later life, though our times together were infrequent, I still have memories of all of us five siblings together with our Mom for our sister Melissa’s wedding, playing golf together one last time in the ‘90’s, being all together for Mom’s memorial in Plymouth, Michigan and several more times later in California.
I am saddened by the reality that we will no longer make memories together. But I will hold close all of the memories you gave me in life. I will especially cherish the love you found late in life with Alisa.
Rest in peace brother.
Jak & Colleen Kozma
