NORFOLK, Va. – For two hours last Saturday morning, as more than 600 of his closest friends listened and grieved, the story of the incredible life of Darryl Cummings was told by those who loved him most.
I thought I knew Darryl pretty well. He graduated from Norview High a decade after me. He learned how to play tennis on the courts at Norfolk's Northside Park. He was a brilliant, eclectic man who had a tremendous impact on local tennis.
But I didn't know about the horrific childhood that scarred him, the immense obstacles he had to overcome that surely was why he always sought affirmation and considered everyone he met to be a friend.
I leave it to Clark, one of his two sons, to tell his Dad's story.
"He was an only child raised by his mother and grandmother," Clark said. "He never knew his father.
"His mother, Shirley, passed away during his junior year in high school. They had moved more than a dozen times in the Norview and Ocean View area.
"His senior year, he stayed with a family because his cousin moved to a different area. He was pretty much independent from this point on in his life.
"He met his father once. They spent a day together in Memphis and toured Graceland. His father committed suicide in the fall of 2004.
"He spent one total day with his father. He lived in a trailer, raised by a single parent, who passed away at a young age. He was lucky to graduate from high school, and who barely made it into college and met his father for one day who later committed suicide.
"The odds were stacked against him."
Yet Cummings had a great life and touched the lives of hundreds, if not thousands of people in his short 59 years on earth.
Cummings died in late November from a heart attack in Florida. The grief caused by his unexpected passing was apparent in the words and emotions expressed by family and friends.
Tears flowed freely during his celebration of life, held in the Folkes-Stevens Tennis Center, the incredible indoor tennis center that has helped make Old Dominion a national power in both men's and women's tennis.
Minium: Message From Celebration of Life for Darryl Cummings: Make the Most of Your Limited Time on Earth
