Note Regarding Order of Entries

The posts in the pages that follow are in this order:

May 2012: CAS Graduation—Kyle Harty Strang Spirit of CAS Award
May 2011: CAS Graduation—Kyle's loyal and loving CAS-mates move up.
March 2011: Two incredible articles that appeared in local newspapers
November: Lyrics of a beautiful song written for Kyle by Sarah Crews
July: Things shared on and around the 17th anniversary of Kyle's birth
June: Snippets of Facebook interchanges, end of school year pieces, and other things written to Kyle
May: CAS Memorial and misc. contributions received in May (in the order the comments were made)
April: Kyle's funeral and misc. contributions received in April (in the order the comments were made)
March 2010: Before Kyle's funeral and information about where to make donations in Kyle's memory

Because postings do not appear in the order they were posted, you will have to check the listing in the Blog Archive below to see whether there are posts you have not read, and then click on those posts.

If you made comments at one of the memorial events and/or if you have words about Kyle that you would like to post, send to: jbarber@berkeley.edu

Followers

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Marcus Cummins at Kyle's Funeral


How’s everybody doing? First of all, I want everybody to look at the person to your left and to your right and give everybody a hug, because you never know when you might see that person again, you know what I mean.

I’m Kyle’s big brother, Kyle’s big brother. When Kyle first came home from the hospital, Craig had bought the house next door to my great grandfather’s house. The first day Kyle came home, I was standing in front of my great grandfather’s house. Craig and Sharleen came up walking with him in their arms. And I was like, “I want to see the baby, I want to see the baby!” And I ran up, and after that it was just, long days to come, long days to come.

So, maybe like a couple years, maybe two years later, I was kickin’ it, actually I didn’t kick it, I was so bored. And Craig and Sharleen, they had this little Toyota I think with a stick shift, and they came and they were like, we’re going to take you to the beach. My great grandfather was like, no, he’s not going anywhere, but Craig talked him out of it, and I went to the beach. I went with Kyle and we built a sandcastle. Ever since then we were always close. We were closer than close.

Then a couple years later, PJ moved in there. PJ was so short, man. And I met his uncle and we were just all cool. We went through a lot of things, a lot of things. I talked to Kyle all the time, all the time. I always sent him a text message or anything. And his dad was always there for me, because to tell you the truth, his dad was my dad. His dad was always there and Kyle was always there. And to take a life like that, you know what I mean? A guy who never even did anything wrong, anything wrong. He used to cry when people littered. You know what I mean? I’m laughing but I’m hurting on the inside. It’s crazy. Kyle was my little brother. I’ve been through so much, and ever since I got myself back on my feet, Kyle has always been there. I called him, I texted him anytime, whatever, he never cared. And to lose him, it feels like I lost my great grandfather again. You know what I mean? It really does. And so now I just really don’t know what to do. But on the inside, my heart is beating, it’s beating super fast. And I know that he will always love me and that I will always love him. And I have to be two big brothers again, plus one, because I have my little brother right there. Ya, I got them. I have to be a big brother for Niko and for Brandon, and Amri because she also lost her big brother.

So, I just want to say that I love everybody. I love you, Craig. I love you, Persis, Niko, Sharleen. We got to stick together. We got to stick together because if we don’t stick together, we don’t know the next time we’re going to see each other. So, now we got to do something that I think Kyle would like. We all got to stick together to stay in contact. Everybody in here, I see upstairs, downstairs, we all have to call each other and just tell each other I love you, or just say something, just say hi, we all have to say something, because if we don’t, we don’t know the next time we’re going to see each other. We just have to let that love be known. Now I’m about to head off this mike. Kyle I love you.

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