wrote this for myself in the airport before my flight to new jersey this week, but i met Brendans cousin on the plane and read it to the family the night i got in. Someone requested I post it here, so here it is: Regarding Brendan Tevlin. Before reading the Great Gatsby, my English teacher told me Gatsby would be a character I would remember for the rest of my life. The first impression every reader has of Gatsby is his smile. He had one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced, or seemed to face, the whole external world for an instant and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself. When I first met Tev, my first impression of him was “this guy gets me”. It was like I was meeting one of those four or five people F. Scott Fitzgerald was talking about. He had a demeanor that invited you, whoever you are, to be yourself. In conversation with him you wouldn’t have the urge to censor yourself in fear of making a misstep, and then being judged for it. You didn’t have to curb your personality to match his, like you do sometimes with people you want to be friends with. There were no missteps with Brendan Tevlin. He accepted you for who you are, and connected with you through his infinitely relatable sense of humor. And while it was his gift to you by accepting you for who you are, it was his power to do the same for others and bring you and the others, a very diverse group of people, together in harmony. That harmony is the charity of his spirit that will live on with those he has touched. For those who didn’t know Tev, or didn’t know him well, you are unlucky. I honestly believe the world would be a better place if there were more like him. I think it is the duty of his friends, and those who experienced his ability to bring all types of people together through acceptance, to continue accepting people for who they are. It was amazing to see acquaintances grow into friendships simply because Brendan was in the room. In fact those friendships turned into kinships. At the end of the year (at beach week) we called ourselves a family. Brendan Tevlin was able to create a family because he had the power to accept people for who they are. Thank you Brendan Tevlin for being you. We will miss you. RIP Tev.
Posted on: Thu, 03 Jul 2014 00:42:41 +0000
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