Cheryl

Cheryl was a friend of mine. I didn't actually meet her until our acquaintance was very nearly at an end, and it was my loss.

Cheryl ran an internet/mail/phone Shooter Supply business in Plano, Texas. When SWMBO started competing in Open Class, I discovered that this was a whole lot more complicated than just having a pistol and some magazines. Magazine carriers, reloading components, dies, holsters -- there's a lot of stuff that you can't get "just anywhere".

My friend Dave (no relation to Cheryl, but A Friend) suggested I try Cheryl's company as a general source of stuff intrinsic to IPSC Competition ... this was late in 2001 ... and so I took the phone number and gave Cheryl a call. It cost a lot of money to start up with a new competition rig, and accessories, but it took a lot more time on the telephone to get the order completed.

In fact, it took about an hour, because when Cheryl got on the phone you were an instant "Good Ol' Boy". And there is more "Good Ol' Girl in Cheryl than in anyone else I've never met.

Actually, that's not entirely true, but that part comes later.

Over the years I would call Cheryl for some powder, magazines, whatever. I would work with some other local shooters and combine orders for (for example) Montana Gold Bullets. Cheryl would pay shipping on a ten-case order, and it didn't have to be a commercial address. I once received an order of 850+ pounds of jacketed MG bullets at the office of my university address. I pitied the poor U.S. Mail carrier who had to cart all that heavy stuff to the counter in the department office, but it was very convenient for me.

And when I went to Open Class, Chery supplied magazines, magazine carriers, extra Safariiland belts (inner and outer), some 'other stuff' and threw in a three-dollar dust cover for the pistol actually free.

During the course of our business, I discovered that (a) the fastest way to get an order in, and out the door, was to place the order by phone; and (b) that getting off the phone in less than an hour required the customer to be darn near rude.

In 2005, Chery and her husband organized the Shirley Skinner Memorial Make-A-Wish match in Waco, Texas. SWMBO and I went down there as guests of Dave (who also lives in Texas) and at the banquet at the end of the match we not only got to meet and chat with Cheryl, we shared a table with her, and with Dave, and with some other folk who were generally left, as SWMBO and I were, in the role of conversational audience. It's hard to tell whether it was Cheryl or Dave who had the most to say, and the most interesting ways to say it. Nobody complained. Everybody who knew both of them were charmed sockless and while the conversation was often overwhelming, it was rarely boring.

Things kinda went downhill for Cheryl from then on, it seems. A combination of personal, family, business and 'other' stuff grew too heavy for Cheryl to bear and one day she just took off.

Cheryl left the building.

Left suddenly, with no warning, and no word of where she was headed or what she was going to do. Cheryl was always a lot better with "Hello!" than she was with "Goodbye".

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It has been several years since I last heard anything from or about Cheryl.

Tonite, I received a broadcast email from Dave.

Cheryl will be buried on Wednesday, September 2, 2009. Services are at St. Katherine's Church at (if I remember it correctly) Blanconia, Texas. Visitation will be the day before, 6-8 pm, Moore Funeral Home, Refugio, Texas.

I have no information on the circumstances of her passing.

I hope that Cheryl found peace in her life and that her passing was gentle. She was a friend and an effusive personality.

I've grown accustomed to missing her. My phone bill is a lot smaller, now that I can place in order in under an hour; but life is less interesting. Money is easier to replace than friends.

Goodbye, Cheryl. Someone should sing "Oh Danny Boy" for you. But if I tried it, you would laugh your ass off and Saint Peter would join in because he just couldn't help himself.