It was less than a week ago that Sgt. Fritz Sandberg lost his dear friend.

"It was very tragic, it was very devastating. In a small agency like ours, not only are you co-workers, you're friends," Sandberg explains.

It's also the same time that a mother learned that she'd have the excruciatingly hard and painful task of telling her two young kids that Daddy wouldn't ever come home.

"Doug was a family man, I mean his wife and his children were everything to him," Sandberg says.

Perhaps Thursday is the hardest of all those experiences though, saying goodbye to Deputy Douglas Alward.

The 39 year-old lost his life after a motorcycle accident on US 127 last Monday-- a curve ball no one saw coming.

"You can't predict where it's going and hopefully what you do in your life makes a difference," Sheriff Wayne Kangas says.

And that's exactly what Deputy Alward did.

"The people of Clinton County have lost a great officer," Sandberg says.

A great deputy whose family life, love of motorcycles, and service to Clinton County won't soon be forgotten.

"Thank you for sharing the dance with us, it is a little painful sometimes, but if you get your chance to dance, good for you," Kangas says.