My memories of Taylor

I've spent the last week thinking of what I can say about Taylor that would help capture the kind of friend he was to me. In life some friends you make will come and go. But some you want to hold onto and they become like family. Taylor was a member of my extended family. I remember when I first met Taylor. It was up at Kyle Collings house. It was out on the front lawn and he was talking about his dad who had just had a heart attack. As we talked, I realized this was Kenny Giles son. Taylor and I became friends that day. It wasn't long after that that I hired him to work in the material handler shop at the church. The one thing I loved about Tay is that he was always my equal in figuring out ways to have fun. We would make up games like "face your fears" and we would have special occasions like "wiener wacker Wednesday's" and "Tattoo Fridays" I remember when we all started buying four wheelers, I was one of the last to get one. So Taylor would go borrow his grandpas so I could come along. One of my favorite things to do was to dare Tay to do stupid things on his four wheeler because he would always do them. Like the time me and Trevor Danielson dared him to try to hover glide his quad over a pond. All it took was me and Trevor saying "you got this Tay. Just get a big head start. You'll make it" we laughed as he went back as far as he could. We kept thinking he would bail once he got close to the water. But to our surprise he went right at it full speed. What was even more amazing is he was hovering on top of the water. Just as we were about to say "he's gonna make it" he hit an invisible wall and toppled over the front of the bars. His quad sank into the pond and he jumped up out of the water. As he pulled his helmet off and water came pouring out the sides, we could see a huge grin on Taylors face. And once we realized he was ok, we fell on the ground laughing. If we could have towed his bike out of the water before it was dark he would have tried it again.

Tay always liked to have fun, but he also always loved to help people out. Like the time he showed up un announced at my parents house to help me sheet rock a room in the basement. He spent hours helping me hang sheets on the ceiling and walls and didn't expect anything in return. He was just happy to help. When he would come and watch UFC fights at my house, instead of the customary 5 dollar chip in for the pay per view, Tay would always hand me a 20. He would do little things that most people didn't know like when Steve Hatch had a staff infection after surgery, he took steve to the hospital and waited with him while the doctors took care of him. He even took him back for a follow up appointment. He would see Cameron Flanagan walking to work and he would pick him up and give him a ride. Taylor was a great person and he cared about people.

Over the past few years, Taylor worked a lot of graveyard shifts and was busy with school so we didn't get to hang out as often as we would like to, but we still made time to get together ever month or so to go to a car show or watch fights or grab lunch. I still hear his voice giving me his common response when I would ask him what he was up to: " oh not a whole lot. Just Chillin" and we would talk about his newest tattoos and hear about his latest kick that he would be on. Whether it was folk music or kilts or learning how to make his own wine, Taylor was always finding new ways to entertain himself.

His passing breaks my heart. I miss my friend. But it's important to live life forward and remember that Taylor was a good man and that some day we will all be able to see him again. And until that day, we should remember the good times we all spent with him and remember that we all have an angel with tattood wings on his back watching over us. I loved him. And I will never forget him. God be with you until we meet again my friend -Chris Dyches