We as a family are so grateful for the overwhelming kindness and generosity of the Mancos community during our time of sorrow and grief over the loss of our beloved husband, father, gee-pa, son and brother, Joe Lewis. We were showered with love, and unbelievable kindness, over and over again, including wonderful meals, kind words, cards and letters, flowers, offers for places to stay, and sincere heartfelt condolences and prayers too numerous to mention. Still, the offer of support, kindness and true friendship keeps coming. I cannot thank people enough for the kind words expressing how much Joe meant to them or what a friend he was to them, mean to us. It’s painful but so comforting to know how much he was loved. We are grateful to all the generous donations to the “Tree Fund Memorial” established in Joe’s name. We look forward to seeing the tree planted when we visit.

Thank you to all the friends and family that rallied around us all in love and support and for your continued prayers and support. Thank you to all the people who provided the wonderful meal after the service and to Mancos Valley Church for letting us use their sanctuary. Thank you to Kinsey Ertel and her crew at Ertel’s Funeral Home, for the wonderful service and the loving care they showed to our family and the coordination with Wickenburg Funeral Home on such short notice. I am personally grateful to mine and Joe’s children, Cooper and Billie Jo, Taylor and Randy, who rallied around me and helped to do all that had to be done and who made me so very proud as they honored their father’s memory so beautifully.

Joe would be humbled and honored to know that his family was so lovingly cared for by the community he was so proud to call his home and its people that he was so proud to call his friends. Thank you tn all of you for helping us to honor Joe and thank you for sharing in our deepest heartfelt loss.

We are grateful to all of you.

Leslie Lewis, Cooper and Billie Jo, Taylor and Randy, Barbara and Ernest Williams, Perry and Lynne Lewis, Perry Donathan and Victoria Lewis