| Matthew Eliot Keller- April 10, 1963-December 23, 1999 I have a short quote from Henry David Thoreau that describes how I have often thought about Matt: "If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer." There is no doubt in my mind or probably anyone's mind here that Matt heard a different drummer. He was unique. I suppose you could say he was unconventional. He was remarkably talented. I used to tell him he was a genius. He always liked to hear that. He had the natural ability to assimilate information very quickly. He had an uncanny insight into machinery. He could figure out how anything worked and he NEVER read the directions to ANYTHING. I would say to him: "Aren't you going to read the directions? How do you know how it works? How do you know how to fix it?" He would smile that big smile of his and explain "Well, this thing does this and that thing does that" and sometimes times he would say "I don't know how I know, I just know" There were many things about Matt that were hard to explain. Sometimes you just had to accept them. I wanted to know how he knew how to build and fix computers . He would say very matter of factly, "I just figured it out." How can you JUST figure out how a computer works? It seemed like his mind was LIKE a computer. It was ALWAYS going, ALWAYS processing. Creating something, inventing something, planning something. He had a VAST amount of knowledge in his head. The problem was what to do with all that knowledge. How could he harness it? Most of the time his mind was racing with ideas. He was like a team of horses running wild. It was impossible to pull the reins in on him. He would have flashes of inspiration, a big smile would appear, his face would light up, and he would be off working on his next project or invention. One of his more amusing inventions is what I call his Gilligan's Island dryer. We had a clothes dryer that had a bad heating element. He got the idea to put the dryer next to the wood stove and rig up a way to draw heat off of the wood stove into the back of the dryer so that it would dry the clothes. Well, he did it and it worked like a charm and everybody who saw it got the biggest kick out of it. The people on Gilligan's island could have learned a few things from Matt. He had it all over the professor. He was very resourceful. Two mottos that he lived by were: "Necessity is the mother of invention" and "One man's trash is another mans treasure." He would often take what appeared to be a pile of junk and almost magically transform it into something useful. A funny but sometimes annoying habit he had was to take the trash to the dump and come back with more stuff than he went with. Of course, all these things he returned with were potential resources for future projects that he had been scheming to build. And what couldn't Matt build? Was there anything he couldn't build or do with his hands? You name it. He could do it. He was a mechanic, a carpenter, an electrician, a plumber, a mason, a gardener, a cook ( ok, he wasn't the greatest cook in the world but there were some things he made that he was famous for at our house like his onion braid bread, his zucchini bread and his home-made pizza he made every Friday night) He would tackle anything and usually he did it with very little effort. It always amazed me how such a big person could be so graceful. He would hang sheet rock standing on stilts. He would walk around on a roof like he was walking on solid ground. He had lightning reflexes. He could catch a fly right out of the air. He didn't bother with fly swatters. With his huge hand he would reach out and scoop up a fly just like that. Even as big as his hands were, he could do the finest detailed work like repairing an antique clock with all those tiny gears. Those huge hands could do anything. I think those big hands are like his big heart. He always wanted to help people and do things for people. It was how he showed them that he cared. He loved people, he loved kids, he loved animals and nature. Actually he seemed to love everything. He seemed to have an unbounded energy and curiosity about life. There was no end to his interests and ambitions. He wasn't afraid to try something new and he was determined to succeed. His most recent challenge was taking a computer course. But I don't think it was much of a challenge for him. He's been working with computers for more than 8 years. I lost track of the numbers of computers he's built and repaired for people. One day he came home with his pick up truck heaped up with computer parts. I thought, oh boy, what's he up to now? He was able to build five computers out of that mess and then he donated them to a school. He built my computer and one of the best things about it is it has Matt's personal touch. He could have gotten brand new parts for it but I always liked the way he would re use and recycle stuff so he used a keyboard he pulled out of a dumpster and a monitor he found at the dump. On the lower left corner of the monitor is printed the brand name, it says Aamazing. A-a-m-a-z-i-n-g. That is probably the BEST word I can think of to describe Matt. He WAS AMAZING. As I said before, Matt heard a different drummer and there were some things about him that were hard to explain. During these last few days we've ALL been trying to make sense out of his death. For myself, I've had to accept, as difficult as it is, that The Good Lord wanted him.------ It's the only explanation that I can come up with. I am grateful that he was taken quickly and there is comfort in knowing that he is now at peace with God. |