There are really no words I can use to describe the depth of loss laid out bare in front of us today. There is no expression in human tongue that can accurately describe the crushing heartache that we all feel. It was too soon, we didn't have enough time, none of us saw it coming. It all seems really dumb and cliche when I say it out loud, but it's true. Doug was a person so full of vitality and life that it just flowed into everyone he touched. He lived with a passion and a kind of hunger that the old envy and the young aspire to. He wore his heart on his sleeve, and a spark on his big dumb face constantly. I've never met someone so happy and content to just be in the company of loved ones and good times.

His loss weighs so heavy on us all tonight, and the world is a darker place without Doug Cheatham. This is so sudden that it just rips the courage right out of you doesn't it? I mean, I didn't even cry at first. I thought it was an awful joke, because losing him was so far out of my mind that it was an absurd impossibility. If only one good thing can be drawn from this, it's that he was who he was. Is. Will always be. Doug shone so bright, that there was no room in his life for regret. Every kiss, every touch, every hug we ever shared; I've never felt that a single one could be better in any way. The last time I held Doug was on the sidewalk in front of the big tree at Buskirk. It was one of the best hugs I've ever had, the kind that lasts just a bit too long, in which you have just enough time to feel the other person's heartbeat.

That was what Doug gave me, that I'll never forget. A desperate, infectious, taste for life and love that seeps into the ground and the air and everyone you come in contact with. I don't regret a damn thing, and I don't think he does either. That's just the type of man he is. Thank you for everything you ever gave us. Thank you for making EVERY hug worthy of being the LAST hug you'd ever give. I won't regret it, and I'll never forget it. Thank you Doug Cheatham. Thank you so much. For everything.