Non-fiction / Daniel
This is something that I really don’t feel like doing. Of course, I bet everyone can understand that. Still someone has to, and besides, I was always Daniel’s multi-task person. It’s funny, even though he’s not here anymore, it seems I’m still doing things for him.
It was recently said that Daniel had a lot of passion for things he enjoyed, and that is no understatement. He always plunged head first into things, and got excited like a little boy. Personally, I think some of his passions got started when he was little. The driving force behind a lot of these things was Daniel’s great uncle Elbert.
Uncle Elbert was around ninety, and he loved Daniel greatly. This is where Daniel’s compassion for the elderly came from. This kindness was very evident when he worked at McCarty Village as a maintenance man. To this day there are residents who say, “No one can do things like Dan did.”
Another thing I think that Uncle Elbert brought to Daniel was a love of racing. This is a big guess on my part, but many was the time that I heard how Uncle Elbert would drive around with Daniel. The car was an old Packard, and ‘driving around’ is putting it a bit lightly. Uncle Elbert was known for racing around Chardon in that Packard , probably pushing the vehicle to its limits.
Another thing was Daniel’s love of music. Uncle Elbert and Aunt Laura had a crank-up record player with many old records. Daniel had to stand on something to reach the crank, and one of his early favorites was “Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue.”
The final thing I can think of which Uncle Elbert inspired was Daniel’s love of nature, for Uncle Elbert lived in an old farm house in Chardon, and the house had an immense amount of property that went along with it. The house no longer stands, and the grounds are now a park that is open to the public. Daniel took mom and I there not long after I met him and taught us how to fish.
In 1977 mom met Daniel originally and they were together for two years. At that point, Daniel left the area, going to Cleveland to be around his family that had moved there. Both were upset at the separation, but went on with their lives. You could call it a break up, but thinking about it, it’s like what Glen Frey said about the Eagles during their reunion tour, “We never broke up. We just took a fourteen year vacation.” It was thirteen years in this case, but you get the picture.
So I met Daniel for the first time in 1992. I’d heard about “Danny” a couple of times when I was little, but this was when everything got started. Looking back, it really couldn’t have happened at a better time. Things were getting a bit difficult in my life then, and he was someone I could talk to. Not that I couldn’t have talked to mom, but I always wanted to protect her. So Daniel served as a good friend to me.
Early on he wanted to know if I was okay with him seeing mom. I didn’t know him well then, and even though I was used to a life that included just my mother and myself, I liked him and was okay with it. He wound up teaching me a lot over the years. He taught me about racing, and I grew to enjoy his type of music. Things weren’t perfect all the time, but that wouldn’t have been real. Besides, only those that you love can aggravate you that much.
In 2000 Daniel was able to reunite with his younger siblings and their families, which was nice, especially considering what has happened. It was really amazing how all three of us fell right in with them. So he (and also mom and I) were blessed with all the holidays and other times that we’ve spent with them since.
Over the past half-year Daniel took an interest in golf. He’d gotten an Xbox from a coworker and then bought “Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005.” At first it frustrated him, but once he got into, golf became a part of him. Once mom asked if he liked golf better than NASCAR. Daniel reassured her that racing was his first love.
There are so many things that have happened that are probably noteworthy, but there are too many to recount or even remember. But I loved him dearly. He was a father to me (although sometimes he was like a little brother too), and from what I’ve heard he was proud of me, with both my news writing and regular writing. I did know it somehow, but to hear that he mentioned this to other people is wonderful.
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Ok thanks for making me cry. This was a great eulogy and I hope that everyone at the service enjoyed it as much as I. The step parent relationship can be so fragile, but it seems that you two figured it out well and even though there were struggles~ “Things weren’t perfect all the time, but that wouldn’t have been real.” You realize that these are a part of life.
I am sure you did everyone proud that day and I am sorry for your loss.
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What a nice way to remember someone who was special to you. It obviously shows in the way that you wrote about him.
I don’t know if you are planning to use this again in some way, or just wanted it to be read in its current form. I think you could definitely develop it if that’s what you wanted to do.
Thanks for sharing. Good luck with your writing.
I liked it for what it was a eulogy. Maybe you could have put a little bit more emotion into it but all in all I got a very nice picture of the man you were saying goodbye to.
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