It’s amazing how people come and go from our lives. Some of those relationships are completely meaningless. Some are trivial and sometimes, they’re even a nice distraction. And then there are those which are world changing.

My good friend, Darryl Champion, was one of the latter. The crazy thing though? Darryl already had SO MANY friends that he certainly didn’t need me to be one. Talk about busy? Try being that guy and keeping up with the thousands of people he knew. I have a “policy” where I do not publicly wish people well on their birthday (via Facebook) for fear that i might miss and offend someone. Which has actually happened. And I only have about a thousand “friends”; I can’t imagine what he went through, every day.

See, Champ was the kind of guy that you bonded with instantly, and he always welcomed you in TOTALLY. There was no “halfway” with Darryl; either you weren’t there, or you were. And I appreciated that because I was always one of the skittish type until I got to know someone. Darryl helped me get beyond “myself” and my issues in that regard.

My friend passed sometime in the afternoon of 5/31/2015. While I was at a theater, watching a movie. I’m going to assume it was directly from, or due to complications arising from, the incredibly bad case of pneumonia he was suffering from.

Though there was no call to rush to the IA because people thought “this is it”, I wish I’d had the flexibility to make the trip and be with him for at least a little while before today. See, I got married just a little while ago, and he even let me know how happy he was about that milestone in my life. When he first had the strength to do so, he made it a point to contact me and let me know he appreciated my thoughts and well wishes. That’s the kind of person he was.

I had even thought about him this morning. Dear God, I never thought today would be the day.

Darryl, thank you for the time I had to share with you. Thank you for all the concern, well wishes, encouragement and chastising when I needed it.

I miss you man. Keep the light on for me — I’ll be there sometime soon, but not yet. Not yet; I’ve got to much to do first.

I love you, brother.