Edward "Eddie" Hardy

Eddie Hardy was born in NY in 1963 and even though he hadn't been back in over 30+ years, he still left the "r's" off of all the ends of his words and would puff out his chest whenever he mentioned to someone that he was from Queens. He also used that as an excuse for his poor driving skills and his refusal to use the plural "ya'll" instead of "yous guys."  He passed away unexpectedly on Friday, November 13th, leaving his friends and family the task of gathering to laugh and cry and tell dumb stories about him. Fortunately, he left us lots of material to work with.

He loved watching WWE wrestling with his best friends and made sure that his daughters knew essential life skills such as how to make each other tap out with a proper chokehold during impromptu living room wrestling matches. He was a man with poorly hidden secrets that we all knew about, such as the hiding of Little Debbie swiss rolls throughout the house so no one else would find and eat them. He had a Dr. Pepper addiction that he wouldn't admit to and over the years, he perfected his mother's chicken parmesan recipe. He was terrible at texting, embarrassed his children on Facebook and enjoyed the simple things in life such as a splash of coffee in his sugar each morning. (A friend once gifted him a 50lb bag of sugar for his birthday and legend says he teared up a little.)

He was always ready for a good time and infamous photos of him posing seductively in a coconut bra and parading around in drag as Marilyn Monroe will forever live on in Facebook memories to traumatize his future grandchildren. He was overly friendly, and his children were always mortified at his need to start a conversation with everyone around him, no matter whether he knew them or not. He was generous and kind and would even do things like drop everything he was doing to go help his annoying ex-wife when she'd do dumb things like run out of gas on the side of 52...again.

He was completely devoted to his children and there was nothing in his life that he was more proud of than being their father. Maybe he had a suspicion that he wouldn't get to be here to see them all fully grownup, and that was why he made the most of the time he did have. When they were small, he wore flowered flats and attended backyard tea parties and escorted ballerinas at dance recitals.  He roasted marshmallows at more girl scout camp outs than we can count and never once complained about his house being overrun with giggling girls almost every weekend during sleepovers. As they grew older and became more independent, he still supported their changing interests even if he didn't always understand them and drove them crazy with daily calls and texts and silly reminders that they would roll their eyes at. Perhaps most shockingly of all, he broke his promise to never let them date and was surprised to find that he (genuinely) liked Carmen's fiancé and Ava's boyfriend.

He is responsible for so much of the good in his children- not only their kindness, and gentleness, but also their terrible sense of humor. It is a testimony to how well he loved them, that they can still find so many reasons to smile even through their sadness.

Eddie is survived by those most important to him, his three daughters, Carmen, Ava and JoJo.future son in law, Derek Wilderman and his spoiled Pekingnese, Paisley, who is very disgruntled at the moment about having her unlimited snack supply cut off. He is also loved by his siblings, extended family and the friends and neighbors that became like family to him through the years, most notably Grandma Lucy, whom he loved like a second mother.

A graveside service will be held at Forsyth Memorial Park at the Gazebo on Friday, Nov. 20th at 10 A.M. In lieu of flowers, his children suggest donations in his honor be given to the Bethesda Center for the Homeless in Winston-Salem or they invite you to come and share your favorite "remember that time Eddie..."  story with them. Tears are welcome, but laughter and a celebration of his life would be more appreciated. They ask that masks be please worn and social distancing rules be observed- both because of the pandemic and because Ava doesn't really like hugs. They look forward to seeing "yous guys" as we say goodbye. to Eddie.