sillyokio

He's gone.

My great friend Travis died this morning, roughly an hour before writing this..

He was yet another victim to melanoma, a disease that hits all too close to home.
His funeral will be held Friday morning.


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We grew up together. Two rednecks in the same white-collar town.
We didn't have many of the same classes together, but we hung out outside of school everyday in our little circle of friends.
We had a nickname, but I can't for the life of me remember what that was. Never were we afraid of getting dirty, flipping the ATV, jumping in the lake, etc. We loved our backwoods roots, and weren't afraid to show it.

In high school, I went to every single football game. not just because I was a band nerd, but I even went to the practices to see you play. Remember freshman year when we beat our rival team? First time in almost 13 years? Man, we rocked out that year. You dated the head cheerleader, of course, and we were "forbidden" to hang out without her around. Hah! That never worked. We'd get together with Cory and make fun of her. After all, you were only with her because she couldn't keep her legs closed and didn't even try to deny it.

We went to Junior prom together, spiked the punch, and tried to get Nick to dance with the guy he'd been crushing on since 7th grade.
We dated senior year. We always knew what evil trick the other was planning, even if we hadn't talked all week. It was great.
We flipped your jeep more than a dozen times, and typically just to make sure the roll bars still worked.
We saved a puppy from Percy Priest Lake in the rain.
I'll always remember turning down your street, and here comes that mutt running towards me, drooling all over the place only to jump in the back of the jeep to sit down next to me and proceed to cover me in said drool. That was the greatest dog.

Your brother, Jerm, always covered for us when we got stuck in the mud and were out a little longer than expected. Remember getting the atv stuck in a snow pile at Nick's? Goddamn my ass was frozen solid.

We graduated together, but you couldn't make it. You were in the hospital. So we held a private graduation party when you got out. I saw you cry! That summer I moved to Texas. You had been talking all year how you were going to move out here too, to go to school, but I never believed you. I knew you didn't have the money, and I didn't pin you for one to whore out to scholarships.
But sure enough, a month later I get a letter in the mail stating that you had enrolled at UT Austin. I drove down that same day, I was so happy. You lived in Austin for a while, dropped out of school, dated a floozy who took every bit of money you earned. I hated that bitch, I really did.
Then you moved to San Antonio, and with our work schedules made it even harder to see each other. We still talked all the time, though. When time did allow, you were in the hospital for treatments, after all you were diagnosed years ago and this had just become the norm.
Major things happened in both our of lives in the few years that followed.
Your brother moved to Nebraska. You had stopped talking to your mom.
Cory was in the army, and we couldn't find him.
You never did make it back home.

I had my own life, too. I lived in Dallas, worked full time, and dedicated my spare time to my aunt who was suffering the same exact disease. She died later that year, and you flew up to be the support I so desperately needed.
I never asked you to do anything for me, but you did. And I will never forget that.

That was the last time we really saw each other. We still talked every other day, saw each other around a few off road forums, but our lives were busy.
I knew you had been in the hospital a bit more often than you had been, and was planning a trip one weekend to come see you.
Then I got a phone call from the same hospital my aunt was in. You had asked for me, and the nurse went through your cell phone to find my number.
I knew it was bad news. I visited you everyday that I could, even though it hurt. I wanted to be there for you.
I tried to contact your parents, but to no avail.
Your father seemed concerned, but your mother refused to talk to me.

Jerm flew down just Monday to see you. That's love, my friend.
I am sad to see you go, but I am glad you are no longer suffering. I will miss you, Trav.
I love ya, kid.