01/22/2018
For those of you who knew Joseph, "Cook" Hudock. My brother Mike was honored with the opportunity to say a few words at Cook's funeral. He has given me permission to share here what he shared with family & friends at the funeral.
***************************
Thank you Father Vincent, and Anita, Tom and Bud, for this opportunity.
Well, he was some Cook! Wasn't he?
WE AREN'T HERE TODAY, BECAUSE COOK DIED, WE'RE HERE BECAUSE COOK LIVED. AND BOY, DID HE EVER LIVE?
All of us who believe in God, believe He put everyone on this Earth for a reason.
What was the reason for Cook? I think it was to make people feel better about themselves.
Cook came along in my life very shortly after my children and I lost my wife at a young age.
Cook walked into the Bovard Firemen's club one evening and he seemed like a guy whom I had known forever. He had that ability. And, as time went on, Wednesday Night at the Club, was now "Cook Night". My brothers and friends all began to show up for "Cook Night". Our business on Wednesdays, once a dead evening, multiplied. In his own way, he was a STAR.
Once Cook told me that at the Denver airport, the ticket agent told him after he pestered her for a bump, (a free ride ticket) "I remember you from last year!" Imagine that? thousands of strangers came into contact with this young lady in a year, and she remembered Cook!
Cook had friends everywhere he went, from the cowboys in Medicine Bow to campers in Marienville, from snowmobilers in Canada to steelworkers in Victory Hill.
Why? Why did he have so many friends? I believe he could make people laugh, make people listen but most importantly he made people feel important.
With my wife, he would write notes in returned Tupperware containers, like this one, "Denise, if I ever eat at the table of the Lord, I just hope you're the cook!" I confronted him once, and asked him, Cook, Denise isn't the only woman who gets those notes, is she? He nodded his head sideways, like only Cook could do.
From that day on, once a week, she cooked extra helpings for me to take to Cook and Bud.
From all of his sayings, like "If I was doing any better, I'd have to be twins!" to his notes in the Tupperware, what really was most important to Cook was his family.
After losing their father when they were young, Cook, Bud, Tom and Anita had no choice except to bond together to make things work. Cook and Bud were two brothers that had the strongest bond that I've ever seen.
Cook adored and respected his mother, for sure. Cook told me once that she ordered him to get rid of his motorcycle, or move out. He tried to hide his motorcycle for a few days, pushing it up to the garage late at night. One night, after pushing up the motorcycle in darkness and quiet, he found his clothes on the porch and the door locked. He said, "I sold the motorcycle."
Cook also never missed Mass on Sunday, but he liked short homilies, and so he doesn't haunt me, I'll conclude with this.
Cook, you've made a difference in ALL OF OUR LIVES, YOU MADE THEM BETTER. AND, AS YOU DINE THIS DAY AT THE TABLE OF THE LORD, GOD BLESS YOU COOK, BECAUSE HE SURE BLESSED US, WITH YOU.
