January 11th, 2011 by Conor

I was telling Cheryl that I don’t have any really fantastically amazing Danny stories, we have only ever know each other as causal friends of friends, and that is probably my fault. Every time I saw him he was always happy and psyched, always about to go do something wicked awesome with his friends. Mostly I guess I waited on Danny and his friends at the Junction, where I would walk back into the kitchen and tell Little Tom and Adam, “your posse is here at table 20 (or 18, usually 18), Yo”. Then Little Tom would go out with a special mix of Ranch and buffalo sauce to chit chat with Danny and friends while the rest of the Kitchen would stress and whine about Tom being gone for however long it took for the friends to share their psych or eat their train fries. Finally Little Tom would go back into the kitchen and the “patient” Adam could go out to say hi.

So… Danny has lots of friends. Good ones. Quality people. Plus, he always seems happy and ready, and I’ve not really met someone like that before. Danny is just that kind of open guy who is friends with you, because, why wouldn’t he be, duh?! So when I ran into him at the local small town Sew and Vac, well…..

I was dropping off my vacuum cleaner to be repaired, and I turned the corner to see Danny, in bright FliGi sweatshirt and hat talking seriously, I mean asking educated questions about sewing machine intricacies seriously, to this little old biddy who was probably in charge of the quilting corner group after church on Sunday’s and had been sewing all of her life, about what sewing machine best suited his needs. If I remember correctly, he was trying a few out, making test piece runs with a machine to figure it all out. I was stopped in my tracks. “um, Hi? What are you… doing… um here?” I asked. ” Oh Hi! Well, I’ve kinda got into sewing, and I have this new project and I need to do it right, so I’m trying out machines and I’ll be way more efficient this way …etc.” We continued to kinda talk about stuff for 2 minutes or so. When I left and got into my car, I realized something about Danny; he doesn’t half way something, he all the ways it, and that is something that I can really look up to.

When I have thought back on that meeting, which is about every other month or so when I go get vacuum bags, I think of Danny sitting there with that old lady, making a friend. It makes me chuckle every time! He was happy to see a familiar face, mine ( and yet make me feel like an old friend with his generous smile), meet a new person, and work towards mastering a skill. It seems like that is all in a days work for Danny.

So here’s to Danny who connects us all with his vibrance and positive outlook, his determination and kindness.

And here’s to Conor and Michelle for giving us a place to share our stories and being the best family Danny could ask for.