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thedrifter
04-13-06, 07:41 AM
Thursday, April 13, 2006; Posted: 11:15 a.m. EDT
Friends believe Bryan is smiling down at them
BY MICHELLE SHAW | COMMUNITY PRESS STAFF WRITER

Bryan Taylor loved to sit around and talk about good memories with his friends. Now, his friends like to think he is smiling down on them, as they share the stories he is no longer able to tell.

While details concerning the circumstances surrounding 20-year-old Lance Cpl. Taylor's death in Iraq have not been released by the Marines, friends have spent the last few days comforting each other with silly anecdotes of their friend's life.

"I'd come home from work," said Bruce Wallace, father of James, Bryan's best friend, of Miami Township. "(Bryan) would be sitting in the living room, watching TV, alone, waiting for Jamie. I'd ask him if he was hungry. He'd say, 'No, I already ate,' and I'd go into the kitchen and see an empty cereal bowl in the sink.

"He was the only person who could get away with this because he was truly my second son."

"He wasn't like any of us," Bruce said. "He was so exceptional."

While friends have stayed close since hearing the news, they have also been comforted through calls from others who were affected by Bryan.

"People who didn't even know him that well are calling to tell me what he meant to them," said John Legleu, 23, a friend of Bryan's. "He had a way of finding things in common. He always found the good in people."

According to his friends, Bryan also found the good in himself to give to others.

"Bryan was pretty much everything you want in a friend," said James Wallace, 20.

"He strived to make sure he was there for his friends no matter what," said Stacey Flick, 20.

Bryan was everything to those he cared about, being a friend, a brother or sometimes even a parent to them.

"I would always seek advice from him," Legleu said. "Even though I was older, I would always get his opinion. He was mature beyond his years."

"He had such a big influence on the people he knew," James said.

But, while Bryan was very influential, he was also rather strong-minded and not so easily influenced by others.

"I tried to talk him out of (joining the Marines), but Bryan isn't just a person who just says he is going to do something," Legleu said. "If he says he's going to do it, he does it.

"He wanted to go to school, but he wasn't the kind of person who was going to let the government pay for it without giving back.

"All of his friends were very proud of him. Even though I didn't agree with it and I thought there were other ways to achieve his goals, when he came back from boot camp I was just so proud.

"You had to support him because he would support you no matter what you wanted to do."

For friends, there was a sense of surprise when he chose to join the Marines and, in their minds, he will always remain a talented athlete with a smile on his face and a truck you could hear coming from miles away.

"He was a phenomenal football player, a tailback," James said. "If he wanted to pursue a football career he could have done it. He always gave 110 percent.

"He didn't want to fail. It wasn't in his vocabulary."

For Bryan, the future was filled with the goals of being a good brother for Matt, and son for his parents Rick and Sherry as well as pursuing his passion for computers.

"He loved being Matt's big brother," Flick said. "(Bryan) was so proud of him.

"Matt has so much of Byran's personality in him and I am so thankful for that."

Bryan studied computer aided design at Live Oaks and planned on furthering his education studying computers or engineering. He is a 2004 graduate of Milford High School. His parents are residents of Miami Township.

Friends are now left with nicknames given to them by Bryan and their memories to share over and over again, just the way Bryan would have wanted it.

"He loved to reminisce about the good times," Legleu said, "even if you were there and had heard the story 500 times."

"There was nothing that made him happier than being with his family and friends," James said.

For his family and friends, the feeling was truly mutual.

mshaw@communitypress.com
248-7684

Ellie