Gunna miss you Shayne

Today I received some sad news, I was told that a good friend of mine Shayne passed away, he was only 52 years.  He was my boss when I worked at a pizza shop and him and his wife treated all of us like family.  He created a small working group of people for his shop, the best way to describe this little group is that we were all wayward in one  way or another.  He was the kind of man you only meet once in your life, there was no one like him. To be frank, he annoyed the absolute crap out of me, He drove me crazy he taught me words I never knew and then proceeded to explain those words I didn’t care to learn, there were days I just wanted to quit and say forget it because he annoyed me so bad! You know what though, I have never in my life that a man who cared so much for the people that he brought into his circle, this little pizza shop of us who came from all walks of life, never once did he judge us.

Even though he drove me crazy and annoyed me, even though he poked fun, His heart heart was bigger than three earths combined, his patience was out of this world, he would teach me something and if I didn’t catch on fast enough, he wouldn’t yell or scream or anything like that, yes, he would poke a little fun at first, but then he’d show me again.  I never felt scared to admit that I didn’t understand or I never felt ashamed because I didn’t get it right the first time. I felt like I could learn my job and learn it well.  He was the kind of man that would go out of his way to give you the shirt off your back or drop what he’s doing to help you out, but he was also the kind of man that would laugh his head off if you did something stupid or slipped and fell, but weren’t hurt.

His love for animals was out of this world, he had more dogs than I could count. There wasn’t a single dog that wasn’t worth his time or energy no matter how sick, frail or brain damaged it was. His life and his house was always opened to these animals.

Every night that we work together, he never stopped talking. He would tell story after story. He would explain life things, and he would give lectures on how to man up or how to brush something off or how to do stuff with confidence.  He always said if you can do something with confidence then you’ll be able to get away with so much. I know that sounds bad but it’s not and I’ve taken that to heart.  There has been times where I’ve been terrified and not wanted to do a job or whatever the event was, and then I think back to him telling me to be confident even if I was nervous, I would then raise my chin up, I broaden my shoulders, put a smile on my face and with confidence.  Having this attitude has gotten through a lot of situations, thank you, Shayne for teaching me that.

As I mentioned before he annoyed the crap out of me, he would raz me up and think it’s funny, he would go on and on when I told him to stop, he thought it was great fun, but you know what it was because of him that I was able to have the mindset, the character and the attitude to be able to brush off the jokes, the puns and the talk of the military to get through basic training and my first few years in the military, it was because of him that I was able to put my head down do my work and not be affected by what was being said, it was because of him that nothing phased me.

One particular story that I’d like to share that it really stuck with me because it made me feel so special over the course of a couple of years, he probably said 30 times he hated making, and swore he never would make deep-fried ice cream, but then one day he found out I had never tried deep fried ice cream. It wasn’t a week later that after we closed down the shop for the night, we all gathered around the pizza making table and we made deep fried ice cream together. Then after it was done, we sat around chatting while we enjoyed it, I never have, nor ever will I again be able to think of deep fried ice cream without thinking of that wonderful night.

Losing somebody that you deeply care for just sucks. There’s no other words, it just sucks.