Timothy Morris, and the person we said goodbye to today

This past Monday, I went to work as usual and was exchanging weekend going-ons with my friend and coworker Julie, when an email appeared from my sister Shawn.  It said simply “CALL ME”.

I said to Julie “Something’s wrong.  Shawn doesn’t email me here.”  Julie said “Uh-oh”.  So I called my sister, and through her tears and stifled sobs I heard “Tim was in an accident this morning Doug, he’s gone.”

My nephew Tim, and his girlfriend Nettie

Tim is my brother Steve and wife Ann’s son--the youngest of their three boys, Steve (II), Edwin & Tim.  He was 21 years old and a junior in college (and an excellent student, a psychology major with a 4.0 grade point average).  He’d been coming home from his girlfriend’s house late Sunday night/early Monday morning, had missed a curve in the road and hit a tree.  The coroner said he died instantly.

I wasn’t sure what to write here, or if I should say anything at all.  It’s still too fresh, the funeral was today.  I haven’t seen my brother cry since we were kids, and all I could do was hug him and grieve with him.  But at the same time, it was amazing to see all the love there today, how many people had gone out of their way to be there for Tim. Besides family and friends, and people he knew from his job & school, Tim was an online gaming enthusiast, and friends he’d made online traveled from states as far as New York & Georgia to be here for him.

In 2008, Tim was one of eight culinary students selected to attend Obama’s inauguration

His obituary reads he was born March 2, 1992 and was a junior at California (Pa) University, and enjoyed playing card and computer games, cooking and was a volunteer at Castle Blood (a haunted house attraction).  And he loved his two dogs, Dexter & Dolly.

But that’s just the facts; it doesn’t say how close he was to his maternal grandparents for example, and how he regularly cooked for them.

This is what Tim’s oldest brother, my nephew Steve had to say about him:

Tim was the sort of guy that everyone wanted to know.  He just had that knack, people were drawn to him.  He was witty and clever in ways I only pretend to be.  And talented. He was ridiculously talented at anything he decided he was going to do.  It didn't matter what it was.  When he wanted to learn how to cook, he learned how to cook.  When he started playing WoW, it took him no time at all to pick it up, and become one of the legitimate best players on his server.  Anything he wanted to do, he just got up and did. And he wasn't afraid to put the effort into learning.

He was the sort of guy who would give you the shirt off his back, and the only thing he'd ask in return is for you to not mention it, because he didn't want the attention.  That's the sort of person we said goodbye to today.