I knew Paul Del Valley for about two weeks in 2004. He was one of a handful of people selected in Indiana to participate in a tour of the U.S. east coast through the 4th of July. It was the summer of my Junior-Senior year of high school. I was one of four Indiana delegates.
It is very likely Paul didn’t remember me long afterward. This was an era before Facebook and our passing connection — despite having been in a van for a day of driving from Indianapolis to Philadelphia and back — waned almost immediately afterward. We just didn’t have good ways of staying close.
I never really forgot about him, though.
He was one of a few people I remember from that trip, as hundreds of others came together across the U.S. for that excursion. I remember Eric and Dane, but can’t quite recall their last names to look them up.
Paul was bubbly, quick with a smile, and seemed unfailingly kind. Perhaps his rhythmic last name helped me to remember him and look him up.
I learned recently Paul grew up to become a pastor at Colfax Christian Church, a small town in northern Indiana I assume he either moved to for the job or because of some other familial connection. He married and had four kids.
And he died of what must have been a surprising, rapidly growing brain tumor at the age of 38. He died July 19, 2024 according to his obituary.That was 20 years to the month I knew him.
I sometimes wonder if there are people who remember me and I don’t remember them. I mused just last week to myself about all the photos I must appear in that I had no idea was being taken at the time. This post serves no real purpose other than to scratch at this notion and share that I remembered Paul, even when by all odds I probably shouldn’t have. Probably a testament to his personality. I don’t remember him being a particularly religious person at the time. Perhaps he was. In retrospect, it seems sort of obvious he’d have found such a calling.
It goes without saying we were the same age. And he died from the same fate as my mother, also at very nearly the same age.
I do not understand it, and really can’t begin to try despite a significant amount of brainpower having been devoted to this over so many years.
