One Last Goodbye

This post comes from my husband, Dennis Ferrier.

Retired Metro Police Commander Bob Nash was known for his kind regard for his officers and deep affection for the Nashville community. I know Bob because I coached his daughter, Diane, in soccer for a couple of years. I still remember her toughness and ferocity in the game. But this story isn’t about Bob or Diane. It’s about another Nash, one whom I never met: Bob’s son and Diane’s older brother, Andrew.

Andrew was a Marine and Iraq War veteran before transitioning into a career as a Metro police officer. By the age of 30, he was a field training officer with a bright future ahead of him — and then, without warning, he died suddenly of heart failure. Just like that, it was over. No chance for anyone to say goodbye.

Last week, a portion of Old Hickory Boulevard was renamed the Andrew Nash Memorial Highway. At the ceremony, Bob Nash took the microphone and spoke to a crowd of more than 100 people about about his son.

“The last time I saw him,” Bob said, “the last thing I said to him…. The last thing he said to me….” He paused for a long moment, trying to compose himself and stem the tears. I worried he was about to share a regret, a silly argument or something that now can never be resolved or taken back.

“The last thing I said to him,” he continued finally, was ‘I love you.’ And the last thing he said to me was ‘I love you.'” Bob let that sink in. I got it. Bob didn’t get to say a final goodbye to his son, but his last goodbye was a good one. There was love. There was peace. There was no junk between them. No unfinished fights. No big, unresolved issues. Just a dad and his son, showing mutual respect and living in love and harmony.

Perfectly imperfect.

“Go fix things with the people you love,” Bob told the crowd. “The ties that bind are worth tending to.”

 

 

I’ll think about Bob’s words now every time I drive by this sign. There’s so much in life that we can’t control– But we can control the way we treat the ones we love.
 

 
And in the end, it could make all the difference.