It was my great honor to speak at both the Rosary Service and Funeral Service for my good friend Darrell Walla, who was born blind on August 20, 1955, and left this earthly life on October 13, 2022.
His services were held at St. Vitus Catholic Church in Touhy, NE, located about 25 miles northwest of Lincoln, on October 19 and 20, 2022.
The following is a very condensed version of my message.
Darrell and I were the best of friends.
We first met at a post-Nebraska football game party in September of 1976. Darrell thought I was a student at the University of Nebraska, but I was only a senior at Raymond Central High School.
Our friendship intensified in June of 1977. While attending a Sunday afternoon fast-pitch softball game in Weston, someone drove their car too close to Darrell and parked on top of Darrell’s foot.
Being the medical expert that I was, checked Darrell’s foot and determined it was not broken. Darrell and I decided to leave the game, and cruise around Saunders and Butler County roads – that afternoon and evening of gravel road travel included the singing of songs that we made up on the fly, the play-by-play of imaginary baseball games of imaginary teams – mainly the Touhy Bears, and the re-creation of 1950s Gunsmoke Radio Programs. Darrell was Chester and Kitty. I was Matt Dillion and Doc. I’m sure that the plots of our improvised radio shows were nothing like Dodge City, Kansas had truly ever experienced.
One of my favorite memories was our public performances of Agnes and Emma – Two happy, but somewhat confused, Czech ladies who, over a cup of coffee, discussed issues ranging from Touhy Softball to how the cooks at the Bohemian Café in Omaha undercooked our order of roast duck – and how that duck may have felt about it.
Darrell Walla’s life included countless hours of laughter.
And Darrell wasn’t shy about sharing his infectious laugh.
I really believe that, at heart, Darrell really believed he was an entertainer. His goal was to offer comments that resulted in hearty laughter – even though sometimes the only person laughing at Darrell’s comments was Darrell himself.
And Darrell was excellent at sharing his infectious laugh at his own expense.
One great memory I have occurred in November 1977. About 40 folks from Valparaiso chartered a bus to attend a Kansas City Chiefs football game in Kansas City. After the game, the bus got caught in a traffic jam which caused the driver to have to deal with quick stop-and-go driving.
At the same time, Darrell needed to use the bathroom. While standing at the urinal, the bus kept abruptly stopping and then quickly starting forward causing Darrell to bounce off the bus’s bathroom walls.
Darrell was frustrated and yelled, “What’s going on?!?”
The passengers roared with laughter.
A lady rider then exclaimed, “Oh, that poor boy.”
She quickly followed with: “Darrell, sit down and pretend you’re a girl!”
More laughter. When it ceased, Darrell shouted, “Great idea!”
Darrell was never a killjoy. Except once. Again, it involved a weekend trip to Kansas City in the summer of 1978. Six of us journeyed to KC to attend a Royals’ baseball game.
Following the Saturday game, we parked our Motor Coach on the outskirts of Kansas City on a gravel road. At about midnight, it was extremely dark and mysteriously quiet. As we began to fall asleep, Darrell announced, “Gee, I hope some serial killer doesn’t stop by.”
We all slept with our eyes wide open that long night.
While the easiest thing to remember about Darrell was the fact that the never let living in physical darkness dose his shining light, I can remember a few times when – like all of us – he had a bad day or two.
I remember traveling with him and his dad to Louisville (near Omaha) during the summer of 1980. Darrell had an interview with the school system as a special education teacher. The interview only lasted a half hour and Darrell immediately knew he wouldn’t be hired. The ride from Louisville back to Touhy was a long silent one.
Darrell was not supposed to become a teacher at Louisville.
The Aurora Public Schools took a chance on Darrell, and it truly did prove to be a life-changing experience for him as it became his home for the next 15 years.
My favorite is the fact that Darrell met the love of his life, Heather Bell, at the Aurora Public Schools.
In early 1991, he worked up the courage to ask her out on a date, and, just over 30 years ago, on June 20, 1992, it was my honor to stand by Darrell’s side as his best man, as he and Heather were married right here at St. Vitus.
A year later, Darrell stood by my side as my best man as Cynthia and I were married in Alliance.
On July 23, 1994, I received a phone call from Darrell. It was the most exciting conversation we ever had, as he shared with me that Alexis Mary was born. “We’re gonna call her Lexy!” – he shouted into the phone.
After Aurora, it was teaching stints at Wahoo Neumann, Raymond Central, and finally at Omaha Burke.
A short move to Columbus followed and then back to his beloved Touhy where he enjoyed his retirement years. Darrell spent dozens of relaxing hours with family and friends on his front porch. He loved to share the beautiful countryside of Saunders and Butler Counties that overlooked his front porch.
As I said earlier, Darrell was a man who lived in physical darkness, but he never allowed his blindness to dose his light. Especially his spiritual light.
He loved his church, his Savior, and his God.
Darrell knew that he was loved by countless people. He knew he was loved by his grandparents, his parents, brothers, and sisters, and their spouses, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, and cousins. He knew he was loved by more people than there are poppy seeds in a kolache.
In my book, all of them, and all of us, made up Team Darrell.
We were a team in helping him get – not only from point A to point B – but helping Darrell get through life and the challenges it offered.
You know, one of Darrell’s imperfections was not moving as fast as we would have liked him too. He usually made those who were taking him somewhere wait on him.
Darrell, his brother Rick, and I shared an apartment in Lincoln for about two years during our college days. I can remember many a morning when Rick was waiting on Darrell. Rick needed to get to his class, and he needed to transport Darrell to his class. Rick would yell, “Come on Darrell, let’s go!”
But Darrell would be weaving back and forth and continue to discuss baseball, Touhy softball, or why Jimmy Carter should be re-elected President of the United States.
And Rick would holler a bit louder, “ARE YOU COMING OR NOT?!?!?”
I was with Darrell and his family at the hospital the weekend of October 8 and 9. When I left him on the afternoon of Sunday, October 9, Darrell was resting comfortably. He hadn’t regained consciousness, but I felt he was at peace.
I let him go that afternoon. I figured he wouldn’t hang around much longer.
Well, he did. He stayed on earth for another four days. And I thought, well, he’s made us wait on him for 67 years and now he’s going to make God wait on him.
Here is how I believe the last few minutes of Darrell’s life may have gone.
I could envision God gently whispering in Darrell’s ear, “are you coming?”
And I believe Darrell answered, “yeah, I’m coming, but I just need to stay with Team Darrell a bit longer.”
And I believe that God said, “Why?”
And Darrell said, “I need to thank them one more time.”
And God asked, “Why?”
And Darrell said “Well, I don’t know if this was a dream I had, or if this really happened. But once I was on the third floor of this burning building and below me was Team Darrell holding a safety net and encouraging me to jump. As the flames moved toward me, Satan appeared. And Satan said, ‘stay with me Darrell, I’ll protect you from the flames.’ And, Lord, Team Darrell kept shouting to me, ‘jump, jump, please jump.’ And Satan said to me, ‘Darrell, you can’t jump, you can’t see them. God didn’t give you eyesight.’ And I told Satan, ‘No, I can’t see them, but they can see ME.’ And I jumped. And they caught me. And I knew they would – because I had faith.”
And God said: “Good job, Darrell.”
And then God paused for a moment and added: “Good job, Team Darrell.”