The Goof and His Words

This was taken at a Sallie Mae Christmas party. Of course Tyler was being his usual goofy self. I wasn't at this party, but I've been to many like it. There would be food, drink, general merriment and a white elephant gift exchange. Usually that means everyone brings a gift with a monetary value of no more than $15.00 and it has to be something that NOBODY would ever want! Then you draw numbers to determine the order in which people get to choose a gift. Any gift in your possession can be stolen by anyone with a number greater than yours, but a given item can only be stolen three times. Whomever steals it the third time gets to keep it. Most people have a hard time picking out horrible gifts, so there are usually a few desirable ones in the mix. Those are the ones we all try to get. It looks like Tyler finally got something good in this shot...chocolate and caramel covered popcorn. Yum!!! I guess he decided to eat it before anyone could steal it from him. Of course the more alcohol that flows into the group, the more the competition ramps up!

I can't imagine this Christmas without Tyler. He was going to be joining us here in Southern California for our Christmas gathering of 45 people, give or take a few. There are others we will miss this year too...Mabel, Larry and Katherine. I know there will be plenty of laughter and love in the space, but there will be the heaviness of the missing hanging over all of us. Life may not be eternal, but love most definitely is...

Yesterday we were going through boxes and organizing things at home, and I found a birthday card Tyler had given me in 2006. It was right before I moved to California. The cards he gave me, for any occasion, always made me cry because he never held anything back. The card I found yesterday is no exception. He wrote the following on the inside:

"I'll miss seeing you almost every day, but I'm happy you're starting a new chapter in your life. I hope you find something out there that makes you happy to go to work and offers growth to a new level of existence. I'm proud of you for having the courage to do what you're doing. I love you! - Ty"

I was deeply touched by those words and I'm going to miss the words he would have written to me in the future; the ones I'll never read. I love you, Tyler.