With a Dallas ladder truck parked outside, and a beloved red Jeep parked on the sidewalk, hundreds filled the gymnasium at Bishop Lynch High School to say goodbye to two best friends and to honor two promising lives cut short in a New York City helicopter crash.
Trevor Cadigan and Brian McDaniel, both 26 and 2010 graduates of Bishop Lynch, were honored with a celebration of life service Saturday afternoon. McDaniel, a Dallas firefighter, was honored by the presence of his co-workers, family, and friends. Cadigan, whose Jeep was adorned with flowers, photographs and his ever-present cowboy boots placed on the front bumper, honored by his family and the countless friends they both shared.
“There is a reason for everything,” said their former football coach Bill Persinger trying to provide some measure of comfort to those who gathered to mourn. “But remember coach,” he said of the advice someone once gave him, “God needs good people in his army too.”
In a two-hour service, friends and family shared their heartache, and shared their joy in knowing these two “forces of nature” for their brief 26 years. They spoke next to a display, the touchstones and tangible pieces of the lives and dreams they were each chasing: Brian McDaniel’s firefighting gear, his favorite Jimmy Page and Steve Miller Albums, Trevor’s video cameras, his photographs, his diplomas and honors from a young man planning a career in journalism.
And between those two tables, a large print of one of the last pictures the two best friends took together: smiling, happy and leaning up against a railing along the East River the day before the helicopter they were riding in crashed into the same body of water, taking the lives of 5 passengers.
Friends fought through their tears to talk about the most loyal of best friends, whose laughter could fill every room.
“I knew that he was going to be one hell of a man and one hell of a fireman,” Michelle Kelor said of Brian McDaniel. “I plan to live life to the fullest as Brian did. I love you Brian.”
“Rest in peace my brother,” said McDaniel’s friend Brett Pettigrew. “God, you got a good one. He’s going to drive you crazy, but trust me, you’ll love him nonetheless.”
“I’ll always miss his big red Jeep sitting out in front of my house for days on in,” said Trevor Cadigan’s friend Ben Clear. I’ll miss the laughter he brought to every room he entered.”
Jason McDaniel honored his brother, the man with the biggest heart he knew.
“And I hope you all can keep the memories you have of Brian and Trevor close to your hearts,” he said. “They will be terribly missed and forever loved.”
“My funny, outgoing, hyper, and sometimes very annoying little brother,” Kathleen Cadigan Howard said as she shared both the joy of her memories of her little brother and her heartbreak of the last two weeks. She shared everything she will miss about her brother including the annoyances and the goofy infectious laugh and smile.
“But most of all I’ll just miss you,” she said through her tears. “I’ll miss everything about you every second for the rest of my life. But I take comfort in knowing that this is not goodbye to you little brother, because I know it’s just time for you to hit the old dusty. It’s just see you later.”
See you later, after a sudden unthinkable tragedy, while those left behind are comforted only by the memories of two best friends and the gift of their short 26 years.
The Cadigan family is already the first to file a lawsuit against the helicopter company, the tour operator, and the pilot in the March 11th crash into New York’s East River. The suit alleges gross negligence for an open-door policy and restraint system that trapped the passengers inside the helicopter when it landed in the river and rolled over trapping everyone except the pilot inside. All five of the victims drowned. The NTSB is still in the initial stage of determining what went wrong and who is to blame for the five lives lost.