FIRST AND LAST....

Melodye Sheffer rides behind Patriot Guard Riders road captain John Minch as they leave New Port Richey for Arlington National Cemetery, where she will inter her husband's cremains




NEW PORT RICHEY - The first time they met, they listened to Jimmy Buffett tunes and talked until the sun came up.

He was an avid motorcyclist with deep hazel eyes who loved to tell a story. She was the reserved one. Both were in the U.S. Navy.

They married. Eventually they left the Navy. Then last year, Jim Sheffer joined the Patriot Guard Riders, a national group of motorcyclists and veterans who attend funerals of members of the U.S. armed forces.

But cancer stole his right shoulder and kidney, and the 20-year veteran never got a chance to ride with the Patriot Guard. He died in May.

Now, his wife is stepping in to help fulfill his dream.

Armed with a leather travel bag containing her husband's ashes, Melodye Sheffer is making the 14-hour trek to Arlington National Cemetery this weekend with the guard. The group took off Friday morning from a McDonald's parking lot in New Port Richey.

"I'm just hoping Jim is happy right now," she said. "I am hoping because he didn't get to go the way he wanted to go, this will satisfy some of that."

Las Vegas, 1989. Jim Sheffer, a chief petty officer storekeeper, was headed to deliver office supplies to Navy officials in San Diego and stopped to find a place to sleep.

But hotels were booked in Sin City. So Jim asked a few Navy officials, in town to recruit, if he could crash with them.

Melodye, then a recruiter living in Las Vegas, had room at her house.

"I said, 'I have a spare bedroom,' " Melodye recalled, " 'so why not?' "

They dated, then married. In 2002, Jim retired from the Navy.

In 2003, he got a nonmilitary job at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, doing training and ordering parts for boats used in combat.

Melodye bought him a Harley-Davidson.

"He loved everything about it," Melodye said. "To feel the wind in your hair."

* * *

Jim heard about the Patriot Guard last year and decided to join.

Soon after, he started having health problems. Night sweats. Anemia. Back pain.

Doctors treated each symptom separately. They said the back pain was from years of working with boats, and the night sweats were just part of getting older. They weren't sure what to make of the anemia.

But a short time later, doctors found a tumor in his shoulder.

Jim stopped working at MacDill. Doctors diagnosed him with renal cell carcinoma. They gave him five years to live.

Jim did physical therapy at the hospital, striving to get better so he could ride his bike with the Patriot Guard.

But the cancer proved to be more aggressive than everyone thought.

He started having breathing problems in late April. He died May 11. He was 42.

Melodye went on a mission.

"I went online and found the Patriot Guard," she said. "I knew I was going to have to get him to Arlington."

So she e-mailed Bobbi Bilotta, Florida's captain of the Patriot Guard Riders. Bilotta arranged the trip and rallied members of the state's guard.

Their route will take them north to Georgia, winding through the Carolinas and ending at the cemetery on Monday.

On Monday, Melodye and the guard will hold a 2 p.m. service for Jim. She plans to leave all of Jim's ashes at the columbarium in the cemetery.

"We're so glad to be able to do this for her," Bilotta said. "Jim never got a mission with us, and now he will."

Melodye wants the ride to honor her husband and his love of motorcycles and the military.

"Arlington is a place where there are so many heroes," she said. "He was so proud to be in the Navy. The Navy was his life. I can't think of a better way to honor him than this."

Camille C. Spencer can be reached at cspencer@sptimes.com or 727 869-6229.


I read this story in the paper, and shed a few tears...Had to share it ....Heard the bikes on Friday morn..