The line of people waiting to get into the church started in the front of the building, snaked down the side driveway and wound to the end of the back parking lot. Patiently, people stood in that line, waiting to pay their respects to David Stelzel, a beloved and long-time resident of East Bernard.
Stelzel passed away in a tragic accident this week, and family and friends are left to mourn. His obituary states he was born into a farming family and graduated from East Bernard High School in the late 1960s.
He started college, but was drafted into the U.S. Army and served in Vietnam from 1971 to 1973. He returned to Baytown and began his family farming legacy, starting with his father, Awald. For 35 years, Stelzel and his brother, Harold, farmed, and Stelzel was proud that he had brought in 44 crops.
In the community, Stelzel served on the Farmer’s Co-Op Board of Directors for over 40 years and on the Farm Bureau Board of Directors for 25 years. All his success with farming and in the community is commendable, but his greatest joy was his family.
I can attest to that as I know his family, and they are down-to-earth people who would do anything for anybody. Stelzel’s wife, Brenda, taught at East Bernard High School for years, and there were quite a few former students at her husband’s wake. I interviewed Brenda a few years ago because she’d won numerous national awards as the yearbook teacher. We struck up a friendship, and I came to cherish her wisdom and down-to-earth advice.
When I heard David had passed away in an unforeseen accident, there was no way I would miss expressing my sympathy to her and her family.
I wasn’t alone. Over a thousand people were there to honor Stelzel, from older men wearing starched jeans and well-worn cowboy boots to young parents explaining to their fidgety children that, in times of sorrow, a community rallies together.
Standing in the line, I saw that solidarity. Residents out here take care of each other. They shop in the town’s businesses and they come out in force to cheer on the East Bernard Brahmas.
That camaraderie was evident in the way members of the church set up refreshment stations outside and made sure everyone was offered a cold glass of lemonade and a smile while they waited to pay their respects to the Stelzel family.
No one complained about how long they had to wait. No one complained about the heat. Instead, they talked about this year’s crop, the weather report for the upcoming week and reminisced about how either Brenda or David had positively impacted their lives.
Behind me in line was one of Stelzel’s good friends, Ken. He said he was still in shock because David was one of those guys everybody thought would be around forever. He took care of business in a quiet way, and did what he was supposed to do, from serving his country to working day after day on a tractor in the rice fields to spoiling his grandchildren, all in a town he called home.
With all the growth in Fort Bend County and the explosion of master-planned communities, it would be easy to categorize East Bernard as just another small town.
But that impression would be incorrect.
East Bernard is a city that’s held together by families from all cultures and walks of life who cherish and honor the deep roots they have in their community.
These families look out for each other, laugh with each other and, this week, cry and comfort each other.
David Stelzel was one of the pillars of the community, and he’ll be sorely missed. But he won’t be forgotten. His legacy was planted in rich soil out in East Bernard where others will make sure that love lives on for generations.
This column was originally published in The Fort Bend Herald.