Last week seemed to be of the normal kind. I went to work as normal, spent the evenings with Jeff as normal, and had way too many projects started at home as normal. Saturday morning I went in to work, as normal, only to find out that the Security Manager, Daryl Hunt, at work had passed away the evening before from a massive heart attack.
I had known Daryl, and spoke to him every single day. In fact, I had joked around with him at work the day he died. He was a big guy...as in football player big, not big big. I just could not believe that he was gone, and I'm still having trouble coming to grips with it.
Daryl had been a Houston Oiler for 6 years back in the Luv Ya Blue days of the early 80's, playing under Bum Phillips. He still holds the record for most tackles in a season at the University of Oklahoma, where he studied before being drafted in the NFL. He would go play golf all the time since retiring from the NFL, and starting work at Grocers Supply, where he has been since the mid 1980's.
I'm not sure why I'm having such trouble accepting that he is gone. Maybe it was because it didn't seem like there was anything wrong with him. Maybe it was because I had spoken to him a mere 2 hours before his death. Maybe it was because he was one of those people who instantly became the center of attention the moment he walked in the room...and not intentionally. People just naturally gravitated to him. I'm sure I could have accepted it more if there had been an official memorial service or funeral here in Houston, but alas, there was not one. Everything was held in his hometown of Odessa, Texas.
I don't have the shoulda/woulda/coulda-said-something-important-to-him-before-he-died syndrome. I think it was just how he lit up the room as he walked through that I will miss the most.
