In Honor of Matthew Ely

On Friday, October 8th, the world lost one of its purest souls. On that day, Matthew Ely died abruptly and unexpectedly in a traffic accident. He was only 32 years old. He left behind countless friends and family, including his fiancé, Kayla Hayes.

Matt was a writer. He had three manuscripts for novels written already. If you ever had the pleasure of reading one of them, you would have found that he had genuine talent. When looking round around his apartment, you would see books on writing, editing, and publishing. The books had little sticky-notes scattered between the pages, where his detail-oriented mind had marked something worth returning to.

Matt’s creativity knew no bounds. When his life was cut so cruelly short, he was in the middle of a Dungeons and Dragons campaign for which he was the Dungeon Master. He was thrilled to be able to DM his own game. He had an entire plot laid out and had meticulously drawn maps complete with rivers, cities, oceans, roads, and mountains. He spent time with each player, patiently helping them develop their character’s back story and how it would mesh with the religions and society of the complex world he had created. With what little money he had, he even designed and purchased little figurines for each character, which arrived in the mail a few days after he died.

In his free time, Matt thoroughly enjoyed going to a local mission-based laser tag arena. He was a confident and intimidating force, often trouncing unsuspecting new players with his uncanny ability to predict his opponent’s movements. The laser tag business also had an arcade with a Halo game, on which he gained the fifth highest score the last time he was there. Matt wanted to have the highest score on that game, someday.

Matt adored Kayla to no end, and she felt the same. She brought light into his life and was often the reason for his broad smile and goofy laughter. Kayla and Matt were going to get married in October of 2022. Kayla already had wedding dress and they had selected a venue. It was going to have a Viking theme, with lots of lanterns and fall colors. Matthew and Kayla had plans for the future, and now Kayla has to go on alone. The entire situation is unfair, horrifying, and unthinkable.

Final expenses are being taken care of. Matthew once expressed that if anything were to happen to him, he would want Kayla to be taken care of. Therefore; the purpose of this fund is to help support Kayla during this time of profound loss. Everything raised here will go directly to her, to use however she needs.

To the reader: thank you for your time. If you cannot contribute to the fund, please consider becoming an organ donor, as Matt was.