David Miller loved to hunt and fish.
“Some of our best memories were of him and my husband out fishing,” says his sister, Peggy Hember, of Missouri Valley.
Miller also was an extremely skilled carpenter, learning the skill in his late teens, and continuing until shortly before his death in May of 2018.
“He left a huge part of himself in my home,” Hember says. “He built this massive wrap around deck with a roof. He didn’t understand why I wanted a roof, but when it rained, guess where he was standing outside… under the roof.”
Hember says his work on the deck in 2010 helped him get work leading a crew on home repairs and other jobs around town.
Although he lived in Missouri Valley from 2009 until his death, Hember says Miller spent most of his life in the Blue Ridge Mountains of West Virginia.
“After his passing, we decided he would want to be on the same land that he used to hunt and fish on. He loved the outdoors,” Hember says. “His ashes were sent to West Virginia and spread in those locations.”
Hember says her brother was the type of man that would help anyone he could. After his death, the family decided he would help others one last time through eye donation.
“Less than 2 months later, we received a letter from a woman named Nancy thanking us for the gift, and stating that she could see better now than she had so years,” Hember says. “I was so grateful to receive that letter.”