If there was one unsung hero throughout our musical career over these many years, it would certainly be Eric Doescher, who along with his wife Linden, did all of the “grunt” work and much, much more for our many endeavors, both personal, music and church-related.

Back in March 2011, in my post about the Doeschers I mentioned that Eric sang bass in the choir, but much more than that, he took charge of the collating, folding and stapling of all the special bulletins that we did for Vespers, Advent, Christmas, Holy Week, Easter and scores of concerts over decades. I don’t know how many times Eric ran out to Aiea Copy Center to either drop off or pick up the printing, as well as a host of other errands that he did for us. And for many years, he actually typed the concert programs, too.

I also spoke about his picking up my relatives at the airport — something he did dozens of times, because it seemed my family always arrived during Thursday night choir rehearsals when neither Carl nor I could pick them up. And Eric and Linden almost always took us to the airport as well as taking the responsibility of picking us up after our numerous trips, even when our flights were delayed and our planes didn’t come in until after 1:00 am!

Eric also worked in my desktop printing business, The Laser’s Edge, Inc. where I converted him to a Mac user, then when we went into the Japanese wedding business, Eric did all the bookkeeping as well as all the sweeping of the LCH courtyard every day as well as the “flower showers” after the weddings.

But where Eric and Linden went “above and beyond the call of duty” was in 2004. They came over every day for a week from early morning to late at night, to help pack some 300 boxes it took us to move from our home in Kaneohe to a condo in downtown Honolulu. Another time when our music publishing company, Ionian Arts, printed the Ionian Psalter, and had to ship 20 cartons of music to Seattle, Eric was right there alongside, helping to pack all the boxes, load them into the car and take them to be shipped.

They moved to Asheville, NC a few years ago, but came back to Honolulu in 2011 for Carl’s “swan song,” Bach’s Mass in B Minor. Here they are shown at the post-concert celebration luncheon at the Hale Koa Hotel.

One could not ask for a better, more loyal or more generous friend than Eric. Despite his sometimes gruff exterior, those who knew him knew he had a heart of gold. So it grieved us to learn that Eric is now in hospice care following the diagnosis of an aggressive tumor. To now tell him “thank you” seems so woefully inadequate. He did so much for us and for LCH!

As he wrote in his latest email: 

Please continue to think positive energy in our direction.  Prayers have already been supremely helpful, and I expect that effect will continue right to my end, and beyond to support Linden as she copes and deals with being alone after 24 years of companionship.  Think the majority of helpful thoughts for Linden. 

Yup, that’s Eric. Always thinking of others, rather than himself.