Dan's Remberence Speech - Debbie Dooley (Dan's Sister)

I can’t begin to express the awe and joy in my heart that comes from being here tonight in the presence of so many people who loved and respected Dan Mayo. On behalf of Dan’s birth family, I want to thank everyone who contributed to tonight’s tribute and I will endeavor to do that personally over the course of the next few months but right now I don’t know all of your names. I do know to thank Larry Hovick and all the crew at the Midland for allowing us to gather here tonight. This venue is especially appropriate because Dan has such a rich history with the building and he had such an appreciation for its beauty in addition to being a long time friend of Larry’s. I also know to thank Jeremy Dixon and all of the crew at Digital Sound Systems. I know Dan and Jeremy had a very special bond and I think that if Dan had ever been blessed with children of his own he would have wanted one son to be just like Jeremy. Jeremy has been the power behind getting this event together tonight but everyone at DSS has taken pride in doing what they do best, utilizing all of their talents to make tonight beautiful for us all, but mainly to honor Dan. I will thank each of you personally for your individual contributions soon but let me say to you collectively, “WELL DONE”, Danny would be so proud of all of you.

Now I’d like to take a minute to share my favorite Danny story. I know that Dan had indomitable spirit, but after that spirit left his body I was overwhelmed with feelings of loss, feeling sorry for myself and others that we could no longer look forward to being blessed with his physical presence. I threw myself into trying to take care of his affairs in the way that he would want me to do to protect all of the people he loved. We were leaving his house one evening after I had successfully found some papers I was looking for and my husband Jack had stumbled across the amazing rock star picture that none of us had seen before. As we were leaving though the kitchen I noticed an opened carton of Diet Dr Pepper, the preferred method of caffeine delivery that we shared. I was sure Danny would want me to have it so I picked it up and brought it home with us. I had been laughing with Candice at DSS when we took in pictures for her to use in the video presentation that we might expect some cosmic retribution for publishing Danny’s baby pictures. The morning after I found the Dr. Pepper I was taking it downstairs to put in the fridge and the retribution began. I got to the second step down and the handle just detached from the carton. I realized there was nothing I could do so I just stood there and watched things unfold. The carton hit the steps and busted in half like an egg, about 20 cans went flying into the air, they hit various steps and bounced back and forth and they looked like a cascade. About four steps from the bottom one can exploded and sprayed soda on the wall then hit bottom and sprayed an arc about 15 feet out in front and then came to a rest. My husband came running, thinking I had fallen down the stairs and found me standing on the second step, holding the little cardboard handle, and laughing hysterically. I was thinking, “Ok, you’re pissed off about the baby pictures, I get it.” And at that moment I knew Danny was there in spirit, providing support by sharing some humor and beauty just for me. So the message I am giving you tonight is to tell you that we can be sad about missing Danny’s physical presence but if we all open our hearts and listen to the universe he is still making his presence known and he is still frickin’ awesome.