Darryl’s passing away was a shock to everyone. Every time he went into hospital he always pulled through and came home and so I almost took it for granted that he always will. He had a very rare condition, he was born with half a heart. The doctors predicted that he would not live a day when he was born and yet he lived to be 28 years old, he was simply put, a bit of a miracle. Darryl was in and out of hospital a lot throughout his life and although these were very hard times for him and his family he always came back fighting and remained cheerful. That was the sort of person he was, determined that he had lots more to give and more life to live.
Darryl might have had challenges with his health but he did lead a very full and happy life. He had lots of friends, he was the sort of person who befriended everyone he met and would literally talk to anyone, whether it’s someone he passed in the street or standing at the bus stop! He had a job volunteering at Woodside Juniors as a classroom assistant, which he loved, again because he loved to be with people. He got on so well with the kids that (I’ve heard) their spirits lifted when they found out Darryl was in charge at detention time, as they knew he’d play games and have fun rather than be stern and give them a good telling off! Woodside holds special meaning, being where we all went to school together. The teachers there are friends of the family and have been supportive throughout Darryl’s childhood and as an adult when we worked there. At the funeral there were flowers from the school in the design of the Woodside emblem which were incredible and very beautiful.
Darryl is a year older than Jamie, but at school he came back a year and so was in our year at school. He wasn’t in my class but I remember him at school. I had no idea years later that I would get together with Jamie and become part of their family. I actually remember Darryl more vividly than Jamie at junior school (sorry Jamie hee hee), probably because he was such a larger than life character. Being cheeky and making people laugh always telling jokes, and strutting about in his orange and black bomber jacket, (which were very fashionable at the time I’ll have you know). After Woodside, Jamie and I went to Shirley High but Darryl went to a different secondary school so I didn’t see him for many years. However some years later when jay and I got together and I met Darryl again he was just as I remembered him, he had not changed, still a funny, lively person who welcomed me into the family and always treated me as a friend.
I have lots of memories from our holiday in the Isle of Wight about 7 years ago, we hadn’t been together very long and I was a little nervous about meeting Jamie’s relatives who lived over there. We stayed in a caravan on a holiday camp. I remember nights in the disco club where Darryl, his cousins and uncle got a bit tipsy, Darryl as tipsy as he was allowed…singing away to the music at the top of his voice. When they were younger Jamie told me he used to do singing competitions on holiday, he loved a good sing song! Then there was Darryl’s mild obsession with Bingo and I cannot forget his snoring!! Baring in mind the walls were paper thin but it was like having a bulldozer going off! I remember lying there giggling and Darryl shouting out ‘I can hear you don’t try any funny business’ and Jamie rolling his eyes and laughing. We had won one of those teddies from a grabbing machine earlier that day, it was a George from Rainbow which said ‘Oh, You are naughty’ in a very camp voice. We kept pressing it every few minutes when everything went quiet, to wind up Darryl and probably the rest of the family as well, as the walls were so thin!
I was introduced to the families favourite restaurant called ‘ The Eight Bells’ which they go to every time they go on holiday there and everybody laughed at the surprise on my face when I saw how big the portion sizes were, my jacket potato was like a football!
Darryl was probably fussier with food than I am! I remember many meals out, some to Darryl’s liking and others not so much! The last meal we all went out for together was at a Greek restaurant, and everyone was unsure how Darryl was going to react to the food, as something he hadn’t tried before. To the surprise of everyone he absolutely loved it! I’ve never seen him eat so much and so fast and demanded that they must go there for everyone’s birthdays in the future! He had such a big smile on his face. :o)
Anyone who knows Darryl knows he was crazy about Chelsea Nan and Grandad were down for the day and Darryl’s friend Andrew came round. Andrew was supporting the other team playing against Chelsea Nan was shouting at the telly, telling off the players for fouling and wagging her finger, which was very amusing! Darryl was very passionate about his team, always wearing the blue and white shirt for matches and had lots of memorabilia. Darryl, Jay and his Dad’s discussions of football scores and tactics sounds like another language to me! One of his other passions was wrestling, he loved going to see it live and watching it on the tele, much to Jamie’s annoyance as he had to listen to it as he went off to sleep as they shared a room and it wasn’t on till late!
Darryl loved to make people laugh and it wasn’t hard he was always making me laugh. He’d come out with silly jokes all the time and had a witty sense of humour. Whenever we start talking about Darryl no matter how sad we are feeling, we always end up laughing about something he said or did and there are so many stories that I haven’t heard before!
A recent story that springs to mind, was the gas man knocking on their door, Darryl answered the door. The gas man asked if he could pop in and read the meter. Darryl apologised, said there was nobody in and shut the door. I’m not sure if he did that on purpose but it was genius! I would have loved to see the gas mans face!
We sometimes played games at Jamie’s house, one that springs to mind was on a new years eve where we sat up and played all sorts of board games until late. We played a dvd quiz game about films. At the time both me and Jamie were working at Blockbuster and Darryl was outraged that we were both on the same team as we were film buffs! It probably was a bit unfair, although they certainly gave us a run for our money! The last memory I have is of just after Christmas this year when Donna bought some new games. I discovered one that I didn’t like, oh my god I’m not good at improvisation! Darryl whooped my arse and pulled off some excellent pipe cleaner creations that had people guessing straight away! It was very amusing!!
Known as the life and soul of the party I believe his soul was at his party yesterday. After two beautiful services, the celebration of Darryl’s life was held at Woodside School
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