For decades, Joey BigBear lifted spirits with his smiles, kind deeds and the chili, fry bread and grilled fare he showered on Minneapolis' homeless, recovering addicts, family and friends.
BigBear died Feb. 7 during a nap, following years of troublesome diabetes. He was 41 years old. The disease that first surfaced 15 years ago (and once shattered a hospital blood glucose record) is suspected of causing the heart attack that took his life, said his father, Joseph BigBear. An autopsy is pending.
"But no matter what it says, it won't bring him back. Losing my son is the hardest thing in my life," said the elder BigBear. "Joe was gentle-hearted — very loving and very caring. … Whenever there was a chance, he would volunteer to do stuff. It was just his nature."
He cooked Thanksgiving dinners for the entire American Indian Center in south Minneapolis. He served the homeless, watched the kids at the center and organized its annual Christmas program.
And he loved being the chef for Sober House in Minneapolis, a program his dad ran for a decade. He went to school to study cooking, and for years "put his whole heart in his cooking. He could cook anything," said his stepmother, Sheila BigBear.
Those touched by years of kindnesses came in droves to Joey BigBear's all-night wake Friday at the Church of Gichitwaa Kateri in Minneapolis. On Sunday, friends and family packed a sweat lodge in Ogilvie, Minn., to pay final homage to the man who touched many with quiet unpretentious deeds.
"He was always smiling. Everybody loved his smiled. His eyes just glittered," his stepmother said. "And he was always a very good-natured kid."
Sheila BigBear met Joey when he was a 7-year-old powwow grass dancer and in her daughter Lisa's second grade class at Sheridan Elementary in St. Paul's East Side. The two kids were buddies, born just three weeks apart.
