He mattered

So, my name is Melissa Baker Douglas. Please excuse me if I don't know what I am doing because I don't. But I made a promise, so here goes.

This person in the picture is Daniel Gilmour. He was born December 21st, 1989.

I crossed paths with Daniel on December 30th, 2023. He showed up at my home with my cousin.

For the last year and a half, I got to know who Daniel was. He wasn't a saint, but who is? He has been in and out of trouble his whole life. I have heard stories about his life that make me understand why. I'm not making excuses for him; it's just my outlook. But because he was around so much (him and my cousin were close), he was around a lot. I watched him because I didn't trust him. He looked mean, and he looked like he belonged to the streets. Both were true. But when he was here, I saw something else. I saw a man that would come inside and take out my trash every time he was here. I saw him talk to my grandfather and ask him questions and let my grandfather tell him stories, and they would laugh together. My grandfather referred to him as the monster. Not because he acted like one but because he looked like the blue monster from Space Jam. I once saw him riding his bike down the street with a wagon attached to it with a girl sitting in the wagon. I found out that she had COPD and could barely walk without losing breath. She needed to get to the other side of town, and he put that wagon on his bike and rode her all the way across town. I watched him defend people that couldn't defend themselves. I watched him go to bat for the people that he cared about, whether they asked him to or not.

He called me his best friend, and I sort of just took it with a grain of salt, thinking it's just something he said because he was around all the time.

Daniel was incarcerated last year for reasons that he should have been incarcerated for. He deserved to be there. He had written a few letters. I didn't think much of them; they were just what he was doing in there.

About a month ago, I received a letter from him letting me know that he had cancer throughout his entire body and that he did not have much time left. I then found out that I was one of his emergency contacts, which blindsided me. I couldn't figure out why me? Where is your family? Where are your real best friends? When I brought it to my cousin's attention, she did not seem surprised. She told me that Daniel didn't really have anybody else. That kind of threw me for a loop. I can think of 15-20 people off the top of my head that I could put down as an emergency contact if I knew that I was at life's end. That is when I realized that he meant what he said about me being his best friend. That was heavy.

Due to the aggressiveness of the cancer, Daniel elected to take end-of-life treatment. All he wanted was to see the people he cared about before he left.

Due to personal reasons, his best friend Kris was not able to make it to hospice to see him. They were able to say goodbye over video chat.

I did the only thing that I could. I found his mom and I drove her up there, and we sat with him so that he could say whatever he wanted to. I asked him anything I could think of to ask somebody if they knew they were going to die tomorrow. The main thing I wanted to know is what he wanted people to remember about him. His words were, "I stood up."

Daniel passed away the next afternoon.

Before I left, I promised Daniel that I would bring him home. I'm doing my best to honor that promise. This fundraiser is for the purpose of the cost of his ashes to bring him home.

I don't know why I was put here. But let's see how this goes.