Daryl

One year ago, mid January I was scheduled to work out of town for a week in Great Falls, Montana. While I was there I received a text from Daryl saying he was in Atlanta in hopes of catching a stand-by flight to Lima, Peru. It wasn't a big shock because a few days prior he had asked me the dates of my work trip to Great Falls.  I knew then he was up to something! I even made the assumption, you're planning on going somewhere right? He just laughed and said no, I'm sure it wouldn't work out. So, when I saw the text... I wasn't really happy for him. In fact, I was a little upset. I was working and even though he had a few days off, there were things at home that I thought he should be doing. Then I realized I was mostly bugged because I was in 14 below zero temps and Daryl was on his way to Peru without me. With just a couple of weeks into the new year, my mind went back to our New Years Day tradition of setting goals and one that Daryl expressed was to live life with...

A few days ago I got out some old Christmas cards that Daryl had given me over the years. Call me crazy, as if I wasn't already in enough pain, right? All of my nicest clothes, high tech gadget gifts and jewelry have been from Daryl, but the gifts that I have treasured the most have been his cards. The last few years I even told him all I wanted was a card. I looked forward to seeing a card placed on my pillow on Christmas Eve. I loved these cards because he would write the most thoughtful messages in them. This year Daryl mentioned more than once that he thought it would be fun and interesting to write a letter using only phrases from different songs. So this is my attempt to write a Christmas letter as if I were Daryl. I have used some of his favorite artists and songs. It's an attempt. I am in no way as creative and ingenious as he was. When I left my home and my family I was no more than a boy in the company of strangers-who taught me how to be sensible,...

I knew Thanksgiving would be hard when a couple of weeks ago I was in Costco and as I walked by the pumpkin pies, tears welled up in my eyes. I found out later that my daughter Natasha had the same experience on a different day. Daryl would eat pumpkin pie for breakfast around Thanksgiving. Every year he would make these incredible orange rolls. It was kind of a family effort with the girls and I zesting the oranges, making the glaze but Daryl did most of the work. It was quite an ordeal to watch as he rolled out the dough working up a sweat as his glasses would slide down his nose. He wanted perfectly thin dough to roll up several times to make many layers. He would make a triple batch sometimes quadruple so there would be baking pans all over the kitchen but the aroma of soft, gooey orange rolls baking permeated the whole house and was worth the mess. He loved making them for family and friends. I promise if you were a lucky recipient of Daryl's orange rolls there was never any s...

I was up late one night about two weeks into October catching up on some emails and work projects when I saw these text messages come through on the Norton girls group text. Earlier that evening our family had been together for dinner and we had a great time together. I felt a sense of fear and sadness as I read these messages of hurt and pain. How I wish I could take it all away but this pain they are experiencing, I too am feeling. I asked my girls if I could share these texts messages because I think it helps answer the question we are asked a lot, "how are you doing?" Erika & Daryl Daryl & MacKenzie Daryl & Alexa Daryl & Natasha  Daryl & Karla  Good morning lovelies, I decided to write an email instead of text because it was late when I saw your text messages. I didn't want to wake you up but I have a few thoughts I wanted to add and texting would take to much time. I'm...

Daryl loved to learn!  I know that was one of the reasons he enjoyed traveling so much. He was inspired to learn more about the history, surroundings and culture of the people wherever we would go. He would read every plaque or monument we would walk by. He loved to go to museums and he was fascinated by the architecture.   He also loved to teach.  So many times after he had studied something he would say to us.. "Here's something to think about" Then... he would impart his wisdom on that subject which lead to a great discussion. I miss those discussions that lasted for hours but felt like minutes. At church we had been asked to be the family home evening coordinators at the 13th branch, a care center in our neighborhood. We would meet with the residents every Tuesday night, previously assigning others to come in to present some type of lesson or activity for them. This is part of an email Daryl wrote to three other couples we were serving with sharing some...

In November of 2014 Daryl decided to go to Europe......alone. I was not really on board for his getaway. In fact, I told him it was really poor timing. I had a busy work week and the following week I had some free time but I wanted to spend it painting our kitchen cabinets together. He told me I could start the project without him. You can imagine how well that comment went over! I learned long ago that once Daryl had made up his mind about something there was no stopping him. He had a very part-time job with Delta cleaning planes that gave us the opportunity to fly standby. The problem I saw was this was November 17th, I was worried he could get stranded and not make it back for Thanksgiving. Off he went on his European adventure while the rest of us started in on our project. I seriously have the best family! While Daryl was away he updated Facebook with his pictures and his travel log. Friends and family were very curious why he was off on a trip alone. I received a few calls ...

I've been thinking a lot about grief and how to best deal with it and this is what I came up with. Share with my family and friends memories of Daryl. As I write this, I just got home from dinner with 3 of my daughters. Erika, MacKenzie and Natasha. They didn't want me to be alone tonight because it is my 34th wedding Anniversary. Alexa would have been with us but she is off on her honeymoon. Yesterday we celebrated the marriage of Alexa and Kohlmann Kearley. It was a beautiful day. I knew that it would be a hard day as I also anticipated today would be hard but the interesting thing is both have turned out to be surprisingly lovely. Of course there were times that emotions came up that we all felt so sad not having Daryl there with us physically. I have been praying to feel Daryl's presence or asking for a special dream, any kind of sign that he is around. Yesterday while in the temple for Alexa and Kohl's wedding the sealer said "there are angels and others ...