Craig Decker

A friend of mine drowned in Utah lake on Saturday. The following was my contribution to the memorial website his family set up:

I first met Craig because he dated a friend of mine a few years ago. I always liked him a lot but didn't really get to know him until this past summer (07). We both moved back into the Elms and I hadn't met his hook yet (just heard rumors). [Craig lost his right hand about a year and a half ago when some fireworks in Mexico went terribly wrong]. The first time I saw him back, we ran into each other at the pool. No one else was there...I was just coming home from somewhere and walking by. I remember being so touched that he wanted to talk to me. We were just old acquaintances, but he was genuinely glad to see me. We sat there at the pool and talked for a long time, like old friends. I was immediately at ease (not common for me), and felt like I was hanging with my best bud, and not my friend's ex. (He wasn't even annoyed by my overdeveloped curiosity about how his unique appendage worked). One night I went over to his place because I needed to talk to my best friend. But he was in bed. So Craig talked to me...for a long time...about a guy. And he told me about a girl, and we dished like girlfriends about our respective crushes. He talked to me about school, and my frustrations, and told me about how he wanted so badly to be a chiropractor. He told me about how even though he had lost his hand, he wouldn't give up on his dream, about how there was a one handed chiropractor in Montana that had inspired him, and about how, with faith, he could do anything; and he encouraged me to do the same. I share these experiences from my friendship with Craig, to illustrate the kind of friend he was. If you occupied the same space as Craig, for any amount of time, you were his friend. When you were in his space, he was WITH you, and you were the most important person in his world. Craig wasn't my BEST friend. But he WAS my friend. And he was there for me at a time when I really needed someone unattached to all of my problems, to just BE there. He was willing, even anxious, to be the answer to that prayer. I will never forget Craig. I don't think any of us who knew him could.