Remembering Randy Wells

1973 Pontiac Grand Prix

I moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma over the Labor Day weekend of 1977. One of the first people I met at church that Sunday was a friendly, somewhat cocky guy named Randy Wells. Randy drove a ginormous 1973 Pontiac Grand Prix that smelled like vanilla and leather, and had a hood long enough to land a small aircraft. I drove a '76 Honda Civic hatchback, and he always poked fun of my small, "beep-beep" car. Ironically, Randy would loan me the use of his Pontiac a year or two later during my annual "snow crash" period of wrecking cars in the Oklahoma wintertime. It was terrifyingly powerful.

Not long after moving to Tulsa, I became enamored with one of Randy's sisters, Darlene, and to Randy's dismay we were soon a very thick couple. He once griped, "every time I find a new friend, one of my sisters takes him away."

Randy was also derisive of my Texan heritage and passion for the Lone Star state, even though I'd moved into The Indian Territory. Less than a decade later, I would return to Texas...with his sister and our children. And as fate often mocks us, Randy would move to Texas with his family a few decades later, settling in Huntsville. Randy and his family flourished in Texas. 

Randy Wells (1957-2021)

He was beloved by me and all that knew him, and he was taken too soon by COVID on Father's Day 2021.
Today (3/12) would have been Randy's 66th Birthday.
Rest in Peace, my brother-in-law and brother in Christ.