First I want to thank everyone for coming today to honor this great man, my father. A person we have all come to love and cherish for many years. The amount of people that have shown up today is only a small portion of the lives he personally touched.

All of us have known him in a variety of roles: father, son, brother, cousin, friend, mentor. I have been privileged to have known him as my father or when I was a child he was better known as Turtle Dad because I always made fun of him ffor moving so slow. To him I was known as Little Rabbit because I loved carrots and always moved alot faster than him. He also called me Charlie Brown that later became into Alexis Brown. My family now calls me that and has stuck ever since because of my father.

When asked to describe him I've heard people say ," Smartest man, larger than life, a fantastic father, humble." While I could use a thousand words and thoughts to describe my dad. He was the life of the party everytime he walked into a room. He was always ready to have a good time no matter what it was. He always had a good taste in music, food, movies, and in clothes for than anything. He was definetly the most fasionable person in any room and he was very proud of it.

Summing up my dads life I keep coming back to one thought, never will I have met a greater man, a man who was so humble and giving. His generosity that he expressed was so heartwarming. He would give and expect nothing in return just to see that person happy. I remember anytime someone would give my dad a compliment on his watches which he was well fond over as many of you know. He would always reply with , " You like it? I'll sell it to you cheap?." Even though my father never asked for anything. He would start to remove it from his wrist and hand it over and not think twice about it. This was and will always be a true testament of my dads true character.

Without a doudt one of the most wonderful things about my dad was his sense of humor. His ablity to come up with quick witted responses never ceased to amaze me. My dad could always make you laugh and had a had a beautiful way of making you see that, you should never take life too seriously to live life with no regrets but to have fun and be safe while doing it. I am so proud to say this is one of the many lessons he passed down to me. Life is too short to let anything or anyone make you unhappy.

Every since I was a little girl anytime I was sad, upset, sick, or just about anything negative that was impacting me my dad would always look at me give me a big hug and say." Don't worry your big fat dad will take care you." Even in his last few months he was with us he would say the same but he would laugh after and say, " Okay maybe not so muct fat anymore so big skinny dad." We would laugh and reminse of the past times. He always made me feel safe and made me believe everything was going to be okay even if I thought the world was ending. My father put his family first before anything and I admired that so much about him. He taught me what it meant to have and be a family and I will forever carry that with me and I thank god and my dad for giving me the oppurituny to learn that.

My dad was the smartest man I ever knew and I know most of you would say the same. He use to tell me things or explain things that made me think deeper. His way of thinking opened up peoples hearts and minds and made them see thins differently.

The biggest thing I learned from my father was to be strong, even if the world was against you. To fight like you have never fought before. I am standing here today to tell all of you to be strong, to live, to laugh and to love. Live as my father always did.

I am so proud to have been your daughter, I will keep your legacy alive and pass it on. Your love, your patience, your understanding, you wisdom, your amazing sense of humor, will live on insidse us forever. You have given us gifts that are more precious than anything in this world.

Goodbye dad, You will always live on in my heart. I love you.

Your daughter,

Alexis Fajardo