Dear Calvin,
The message started me up that day as I couldn’t believe my eyes or my ears. I thought for a second that perhaps I was having one of those bad dreams that dissolve in the morning. “Just a bad dream,” I remember telling myself. Yet the message persisted, and I was confused – I still am.
Your passing, dear Calvin, came as a heavy blow to me that I can never recover from. It was like a thick nimbus suddenly encompassed everything that I thought was good, all the future jokes I was planning on breaking to you. However, I hope you are well wherever you are Calvin– I hope still above all else that you’d be here with us.
I lit this bright virtual candle to let you know that you’ll be greatly missed and forever remain my good, inspiring, and exciting guy for a good number of reasons. I’ve included the ones that are most personal to me.
Many will agree that you were full to the bream with humour and always reflecting your bright and intoxicating personality towards other people. The first reason I’ll miss you greatly for is your funny jokes: how you’d crack me up all the time. I sometimes would continue regurgitating your funny sayings after you said them, and this kept reminding me of you. Even when I’d be having a sad day meeting you and your exciting outlook on life literally lighted me up. I still wonder where you used to download all those hilarious jokes – but now I’ll never know.
Not only did you inspire me to show my teeth from time to time, but you also proved to be a kind and patient person. In my eyes, you’re one of the only few people who showed me such a welcoming ambience. It was in one of my best plans ever to get to know much more personally, but the rushed nature of tertiary education always came in the way – I wish we could have dialogued a little bit more.
Another inspiring trait you displayed was tolerance and an unruffled inner self. I would never forget how patient and calm spirited you were around me. Your patience manifested with the way you’d socialise with me, the way you treated me when I visited at your house and how you generally treated everyone around you – I have experienced this first-hand and always wished I could really know you even more.
I can’t begin to think about what playing table tennis will be like without you. Life without running around the table tennis board while laughing all the way is going to be very different. The table tennis games that I'd play at your house were about all the table tennis I’ve ever played in my whole life and you made it a very exciting first experience – always making the game even more challenging and fun for me.
I miss the peppermint tea that you'd brew for me when I visited, the marvellous time that we spent together in Pitlockery and the fun times that I got to learn about the kind of person that you are. I’d like to seize this opportunity to deeply thank you for all the times we've shared together. Thank you, Calvin Donnelly, from the deepest depths of my heart.
Always here for you my guy!!!