Talking Point Tuesday --- Loss of a Friend

Last week one of my close friends growing up passed away (Steve...pictured above). He lived a few houses down the street from me growing up and he would always be outside playing with us every day. During the day, we would be somewhere in the neighborhood playing baseball, basketball, tennis, Frisbee, swimming, golf (we made a little golf course in his back yard), ping pong, Kick the Can, etc, etc, etc. When it got to be late, we would always go into Steve's house to play some video games (he had the Playstation!).

I remember spending many late nights at his house and it would drive his parent's crazy as it would get later and later! (who could blame them?...they were always very kind and patient with us and did a great job raising Steve). I spoke on the phone with Steve about 2 weeks ago and he wanted to be sure I would stop over his place next time I was in town cause he had gotten out some of those old games we used to spend so many hours playing. It always made me laugh when it starting getting late and his mom would yell up the steps, "Steven, do you know what time it is???" and he would yell back down "TOOL TIME" (a reference to the sitcom Home Improvement).

My favorite memory of Steve that I will never forget happened during a video game we liked to play called Twisted Metal. It was probably 2:00 in the morning and we were trying to be quiet cause his parents had gone to bed. We had been struggling for months to beat the final level in the difficult mode, and we could come close to beating the game, but always fell a little short. But on this night, we finally made it to the final level and beat the entire game. Steve jumped straight off his bed, threw his arms in the air, and started cheering at the top of his lungs. As he jumped up, he accidentally put his fist right through the tile in his ceiling making quite a hole! Of course this woke his parent's up...his mom came over, saw the hole Steve had made, and she said, "Steven, you are in so much trouble" to which he replied, "I don't care...it was sooooo worth it!"

Steve will be missed!