Excerpts from the herald-review.com:
Decatur FD Engine 6 that Firefighter Micah “Bubba” Wakeman rode to the rescue of countless others carried him on his final journey home Tuesday. The 16-year department veteran, who lived in Mount Pulaski and also loved farming, died in a tractor rollover accident June 13. The married father of four children was just 43.
Wakeman’s colleagues and fellow firefighters from all over Central Illinois paid their respects and offered him one last salute. Then an honor guard carried their friend from the church as other hands rose in a slow-motion salute. Proceeding slowly, and led by squad cars, symbolically one each from Decatur Police and the Macon County Sheriff’s Office, the funeral procession moved off.
It was filled with other fire, police, and emergency vehicles as it wound its way on the 3-mile journey to the interment in Warrensburg. The funeral procession passed under a ceremonial arch formed by two aerial ladder trucks supporting an American flag snapping smartly in the breeze. The bright weather had matched the upbeat tone of Wakeman’s funeral service, which was described as a tribute to an extraordinary life well-lived rather than mourning one cut short far too soon.
Wakeman’s friend Tracy Dyer said “This is not a funeral, this is a celebration … of how one not-so-little man has made an impact here and all over the world from Uganda to Haiti, to Guatemala to the Ukraine …”
Wakeman’s strong Christian faith had led him on missions work to those countries and others and to serve as a foster parent for kids in need. He was described as a caring, conscientious, and hardworking man who spent almost every waking moment lending others a hand.
And while the atmosphere was upbeat with occasional laughter at funny stories and memories, the sadness at the departure of a good and well-loved man was there, too. Sobbing from the mourners could be heard as a message was read out from 20-year-old daughter Ashton to her dad, describing how, for once, she was lost for words to say how she was feeling.
“But the thing I can think to say, and the thing that I think we all need to say, is ‘thank you’ … thank you, God, for letting us have some of my daddy in our lives, because not many people are blessed with a Micah Wakeman …”
There were more tears punctuating an intense quiet that fell over the church sanctuary at the end of the service as a lone firefighter prepared to ring a bell nine times in three sets of three rings, the traditional way firefighters salute and bid farewell to a comrade.
In a show of solidarity and support, firefighters from Springfield and Champaign covered fire stations in Decatur on Tuesday so Decatur firefighters could attend the service. The number of Decatur firefighters present, active duty and retired, numbered more than 100.
