Neal L. Fredericks: In memory of a good man's passing:
To his Family and Friends, please accept my deepest condolences on Neal's passing. I wish to share with you the grief I've been feeling, to give you a small look into how Neal touched the lives of others. Please forgive my ineloquence.
Although I didn't know Neal as long as some others did, I feel like I knew him well.
I didn't know his nickname was "Boogie", I didn't know too much about his private life, he wouldn't let me know too much about jobs he had on the horizon (he never seem to want to hurt my feeling by getting my hopes up), I didn't know his deepest pain, his biggest joy, and all the little things you learn about someone over time. I didn't know, because I didn't get that time. It was taken away from him, from me, from us all. So all those things, which I would have found out over the course of our friendship, I will have to learn from others or never at all.
However, I think I knew him well. In things we discussed, in the moments we shared, in the 'stands' I saw him take, in the things he found right, wrong, funny or pointless. I feel I knew him well, that part of us that really counts when the chips are down. This is why I liked him, this is why I wanted to know him better, it's why I wanted to continue to work with him, and it's why I never tried to rush our friendship. I thought we had more time. I thought of him as a friend and I hope he felt the same. Man, I thought we had more time. I felt he had more to do, I thought maybe, we would do some of it together.
Every person we meet is important in our lives, even the ones we know for a short amount of time (sometimes too short), they mold us, change us and you'd like to think that maybe you've changed them in some way. I'd like to think the time I spent with Neal became part of who he was, if only the smallest bit. A part of Neal got imprinted on to me, and is one of the many reasons why it hit me so damn hard when I heard of Neal's Passing. I'm going to do, the only thing I can when tragedy like this hits and I can't make sense of it or understand why. I'm going take that part Neal gave me and run with it. I know someone who would say, "That's tight Maurice".
You will never be forgotten Neal.
Maurice (Mo) Jordan
|