Hyland

It's been roughly about a month since Hyland died. Shortly after I heard of J.D.'s passing, I also heard of Hyland's passing, through mutual friends. He died of liver cancer, which he has a family history of, which had also taken his father's life, both at an early age. He passed 30 September of this year, however I heard about it on 2 October.

Hyland was one of the first people I remember meeting here at Ramstein. He was working at the Southside Shoppette as a cashier at the time, and I would stop in frequently to buy beverages and meals in between work. Some how we got on the topic of video games, and that was how we made our acquaintance. Interestingly enough, the first game I remember discussing was the new Hitman game for the X-Box 360 (at the time).

I would talk to him anytime I saw him, asking if he had played a new game. We would trade stories, and what not. I think he even enjoyed playing Saint's Row, when it had first released. Hyland was definitely an X-Box fan.

At one point, the Southside Shoppette closed down in 2014, and he was transferred to the main BX to work in the warehouse. He was disappointed that the Southside Shoppette had been closed, but was hopeful that perhaps it would be reopened within the near future. To this day, it still remains closed, only being used for storage purposes. Shortly afterwards, he started working part-time at the commissary as a grocery bagger. Baggers work for tips, and as it turns out, they can easily clear $1000 in a good month, if not more. I would bump into him there, and catch up on how he was doing.

He decided to deploy to Poland to help set up new AAFES facilities there. He was gone pretty much throughout the year. He returned in 2016, but by then, I had changed jobs. My encounters with him became less frequent, but they still occurred.

It was about the same time that I asked him for his X-Box gamer ID. It was also his Playstation Network ID: Hyland17. He wasn't so active on the Playstation side of gaming, but on the X-Box leaderboards, he was on fire. He had a total of 49,995 achievement points; just 5 points short of breaking 50,000. The very last game he played was Rage 2.

What bothers me the most is that Hyland was a very soft spoken, gentle soul. Not once did I ever detect any kind of malice in his speech, nor did I ever hear him speak poorly about anybody. It just wasn't his nature. For a black dude, he liked to get the tribal tattoo sleeves, and had multiple facial piercings. he even had a short mohawk (a frohawk). It actually worked for him. It really sucks when the good ones go early.

When I had heard of his passing, I donated some money to help ship his body back to the US, where he could have a proper funeral. It wasn't much on my part, but I had felt obligated. It was the right thing to do. Other commissary baggers gave some, but I don't know how much was given by whom. I just hope that the amount I gave helped make a difference. Perhaps this is inappropriate for me to say, but I think that he should've been buried here in Germany, since this is where he lived most of his life. Had he wanted to return Stateside, he would've found a way a long time ago. I think that perhaps he would want to remain here, even in death.

The KMC seems a little bit more lonelier with his passing. I sent him a friend request on Playstation Network; one that I know that he will never receive and approve. I included a brief message apologizing that we had never hung out. I still have his friend account on my X-Box Live; I am amazed at all the achievements he had scored, going all the way back to some of the first X-Box 360 games. Many of the games he played, I had also played, either on X-Box or their Playstation equivalent. I would encounter his ghost car in Forza 3, where we would race from time to time.  I guess that's how life goes, I suppose.

Rest well, Hyland. Hyland17. You will be missed.