Daryl Matthews

A great friend, my best man, was killed Sunday afternoon after losing control of his truck after a tire blew out.

I've been thinking all day about the time we spent together.  We played tennis, racquetball, frisbee golf, pool, soccer - even golf golf together.  We were always fixing my car which was always broken. We spent countless hours sitting on the back porch talking about the day's events and dreams of the future.  In the summer, he'd tell me about his days flagging on the highway.  There was always high drama on the highway.  I loved the stories.  We went to Austin Community College together.  We shared the same teachers.  We spent countless hours in "the shed" doing homework.  After homework, we played straight dominoes, chess, Stratego, rummy and lifted weights.  We frequented a bar in Redrock to play pickup dominoes.  I went camping with Daryl a lot.  We went in Daryl's truck to New Mexico a couple times.  I remember waking up in the camper, somewhere in the desert, to a dry, cold, crisp morning after Daryl driving all night.  We hiked Big Bend together.  I remember going out with Daryl to the nightclubs.  Daryl, in blue jeans, so not cool, would do "the robot", to the wrong song, while everybody else danced normal.  We fished lake Somerville a few times in Daryl's john boat.  I can't tell you how many good times we had together.  Daryl made my late teens to mid-twenties a great place, full of life.  He was my right hand man while bursting into the world.  I was shot gun.  He was at the controls.

Daryl was as competitive as I was and we were always neck and neck in everything -- from sports all the way to chess.  We even had a competition memorizing pi.  The number pi wrapped the math room.  I had it memorized to 40 digits or so.  Daryl had me beat.  We got to team up when we played 42.  I loved playing with Daryl.  When most guys go out on the night before their wedding, I wanted to play 42 with Daryl as my partner.  It was head to head combat with Joel and Trae (or was it Benji!?!) against Daryl and I.

I haven't mentioned dutch ovens, "oranch surprise", pushing the Golf (diesel car) half the night to Plantersville, homemade ice cream, roasting chickens on the open pit, floating the San Marcos river, camping in Wimberly, eating Mexican food in east Austin, riding donkeys to Boquias, playing pool, Spock/Captain Kirk impressions, singing the blues, dancing to live music at the Black Cat etc.

We partied on.

I can't believe the person that I share so many great memories with is gone.  It saddens me deeply.  He was truly a great friend.  When I heard somebody had passed away, I said, "... not Daryl."

What all this brings back is how wonderful it was.  Daryl was the pilot.  If so, I'd be Spock, who I will quote, "Each of us... at some time in our lives, turns to someone - a father, a brother, a God... and asks...'Why am I here? What was I meant to be?'"  Those were the questions I wrestled with with Daryl on the back porch under the stars, by camp fires, on road trips, in mountains, on lakes and by streams.

Daryl didn't stop to think when it came to helping somebody, that is just what he did.  It was who he was - an honest-to-goodness solid, sweet soul.  I was very honored to have Daryl as the best man in my wedding.  Daryl was always there for me, not just me, but anybody who needed help.  It's such a tragedy to see him go.  The world just lost a big heaping bowl of goodness.

I think without hesitation, Daryl would say to everybody, "Live Long And Prosper And Party On!"... and then When The Saints Go Marching In would play...

PS: Another Spock quote is, "One can begin to reshape the landscape with a single flower."  In Daryl's honor, I want to create a bed of flowers in my backyard to remember all the good times we had together.

Maybe I'll even make a cake... or how about that blackberry cobbler... or maybe that cherry pie.