Aaron James Daufeldt

March 12, 1988 ~ January 27, 2020

In the short time since his death at home on January 27th, 2020, the outpouring of love and support from friends and family who remember our beloved son, Aaron James Daufeldt, has been overwhelming and we are grateful for their caring words and prayers of comfort and hope. Aaron was 31 years old. He was the younger of our two sons and took great pleasure in having an older brother. They shared a close relationship and he took satisfaction that his middle name was his father's name.

Aaron, born in Greensboro, NC, graduated from Page High School and earned a 2-year fully-funded scholarship to Guilford Technical Community College. He also attended Appalachian State University and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from UNC-Greensboro. He had worked at Liberty Hardware as a customer care provider, as a warehouseman for another employer and most recently as an agent in the transportation industry.

Aaron had keen powers of observation and a witty, humorous style, never missing an opportunity to sneak candid photos/videos of family and friends in compromising situations. He would then be sure they saw him, show them the picture or video and laugh uproariously. When someone would catch him in the same way he would act angry, but really, thought it was funny that someone would turn the table on him.

Aaron was a bright, spirited, playful and energetic personality, always ready for action and adventure. He was also a natural athlete with a competitive nature. He preferred quick-action sports like ping-pong, tennis and his personal favorite, roller hockey, playing in leagues and on travel teams where he was the fastest skater in his age group.

Born to amuse, inspire and delight.....and to love, Aaron had a quick, easy laugh and a big smile. He was a loyal friend, with a pet name for nearly everyone. For example, his older brother became Big Brodghie or Yeems, his good friend Cameron became Coom, his mother became Momma Jubs or Meemo, his father became Daddio and his nephew became Wy Guy. He also had a charitable heart full of empathy and love for family, friends and animals, especially cats and dogs, including his pet Havanese dog, Jack, that worshipped him, and he affectionately called Poogie, Jack Bean or Mr. Bigglesworth.

He loved his cousins in North Carolina with whom he would enjoy holidays and family gatherings, and his cousins in Iowa where he would spend extended summer vacations and who nearly all visited him in Greensboro. His family and friends are heartbroken by his death but will remember the love, laughter, spontaneity and energy he brought to every occasion. We all loved him dearly.

Left to cherish his memory are his grandfather, John Hunter of Clemmons, his parents, Jim and Martha (Marty) Daufeldt of Greensboro, his brother Adam and wife Courtney, of Summerfield and his nephew Wyatt, whom he adored, as well as many aunts, uncles and cousins.

A memorial service will be held on Sunday, February 16th, 2020 at 2 PM in the chapel of Hanes-Lineberry Funeral Home, 515 North Elm Street, Greensboro, NC. The family will receive friends immediately after the service. Memorials in Aaron’s honor may be made to Sanctuary House, PO Box 21141, Greensboro, NC 27420-1141 or a charity of one’s choice. Online condolences may be offered at www.haneslineberryfhnorthelm.com.

EULOGY

My name is Lisa Wertzbaugher. Jim is my mother’s brother, and Aaron is my first cousin. I was very humbled and honored when Jim and Marty asked me to give the eulogy at this service. I was also nervous. I grew up in Iowa and saw Aaron somewhat infrequently over the years. I was afraid I wouldn’t have enough personal information about Aaron to appropriately honor him. Boy, was I wrong. The outpouring of love for Aaron online, over emails, texts and phone calls, and reminiscing with friends and family over many funny stories made it easy. Even in just his big grin, Aaron’s personality comes right through.

Aaron had a good heart full of empathy and love for others. I admire him most for this. A friend of his from high school who is deaf posted in her memorial that she considered Aaron a good friend because he made every effort to communicate with her and even attended sign language club after school to help him in that. Jim and Marty shared that when he was younger Aaron had been a buddy for a child during wheelchair baseball games. My youngest sister, Kate, who was just a year older than Aaron, had Down syndrome. I always noticed how easily he interacted with her. He spoke to her as if there was no disability, not that he noticed anyway.

I’m very active in my church, however, I also know you can volunteer a thousand hours for the church and never miss a Sunday service, yet God looks straight into your heart. I have no doubt what he saw in Aaron’s. We should all be so lucky to naturally accept and embrace our fellow human the way Aaron did. Most of us have to work at it, but not Aaron.

I admire Aaron’s heart, but I love his personality. All of the memories I received had a common theme – Aaron was hilarious and made life interesting for everyone he met. I want to share some stories from Jim, Marty, and Adam.

First, I’m going to preface this by saying I love these stories because Jim and Marty have more serious and stoic personalities, and Aaron’s contrasted theirs in many ways. What a true gift from God that they were blessed with Aaron’s humor and spirit in their lives, although they might not have always seen it that way.

Aaron was described as a “spirited” toddler. One of Aaron’s preschool teachers at the Methodist church remarked to Marty about Aaron’s ‘playful spirit’ and asked if they were being consistent with their discipline. Marty said “Well, we do try, but Aaron is quite a handful.” The teacher simply replied, “I’ll pray for you.” Despite that, he was still asked to many play dates by his friends and even his teachers, and Jim and Marty admit they very much appreciated the breaks.

Something Aaron often did as a young adult was to come down the back stairs into the kitchen where Jim would be reading the newspaper and say ‘Hey, Dad, Check it out!", then curl up his arm to flex his bicep, Popeye style, and ask Jim to squeeze it to prove his hard muscle.

Aaron got constant pleasure and many laughs from surprising his parents and others by jumping out from behind a wall or door shouting “Boo!” as they entered a room, and then clutched their hearts in fright. And he loved to flash his perfect teeth for his parents to get compliments. He basked in the attention and pleasure of having something better than them.

In fact, Jim actually had Aaron’s obituary published in the Wall Street Journal on Saturday. We thought that was amazing, yet we laughed at the irony since Aaron wasn’t always the best money manager. We also laughed at the fact that he is going out in celebrity style. Besting us, yet again.

Adam shared some memories as well. He told me Aaron loved the movies Dances with Wolves, The Christmas Story and Home Alone and always made references to those movies, in texted pictures or verbally. For example, when they would swap clothes or toys he would say “Good Trade” like the Indian said to Lt. Dunbar in Dances with Wolves.

He seemed to speak his own language making up pet names for everyone. He always called Adam Big Brodghie (Bro-dee) and Yeems. He also had affectionate nicknames for others. For example, Granddaddy became GrandDoody, Mom became Momma Jubs or Meemo, his good friend Cameron became Coom, Dad became Daddio and Jack (the dog – and perhaps his favorite) became Poogie, Jackbean or Mr. Bigglesworth. Wyatt, his beloved nephew, became Wy Guy.

One time, Adam and a friend built a fort in the woods, which they thought was super nice, but now he admits was really just a dinky lean-to. Aaron would always give Adam a hard time about it by sending him a video of a gorilla trying to use a saw. In fact, Aaron often communicated by video instead of texting or calling. When I was working on this eulogy my mom called to tell me she had a text message from Aaron that I could include. When she forwarded it to me, it was just a video he took of a tree frog jumping onto his friend’s face. No text attached. Only Aaron would randomly send that to his aunt in Iowa.

Aaron seemed to never miss an opportunity to sneak candid photos/videos of family and friends in compromising situations. He would then be sure they saw him, show them the picture or video, and laugh uproariously in that 'Gotch ya' moment. If you know the Daufeldt family, many of us laugh harder at our own jokes than our audience does. When someone would catch him in the same way, he’d act angry but really, thought it was funny that someone would turn the table on him.

Adam and Aaron were close. Adam said he’d run to Aaron’s room when he had nightmares as a kid, which Aaron thought was funny because Adam was the ‘big brother’, but Aaron never made him feel bad about it. They were both athletic and competitive. Adam said he lost his shirt betting against Aaron when they played tennis and Aaron won a lot of free dinners from it.

Aaron was also very adept technologically. He loved gaming and connected with friends that way. Jim and Marty have both commented they have no idea how they’ll work all their gadgets now. Even the neighbors would call Aaron to come over to fix computer and cell phone issues.

Aaron’s extended family also have many fond memories of him. We have 19 first cousins in the Daufeldt family, and most of us live in Iowa. When you reached high school, you'd get to take a trip to North Carolina with our grandparents and other cousins your age to visit Jim’s family. This was a huge treat for all of us who hadn’t been much farther than the county fair. Everyone has memories of Adam and Aaron - spying on us, pillow fights, singing in the car saying ‘Oh, yeah, I love this song’ because he loved music a lot, and much more. Everyone remembers his big grin and squeaky laugh. Out of 19 cousins, Aaron was the baby of the family, but that did not slow him down.

Our cousin, Brenda, mentioned she feels bad for how many times Adam and Aaron had to endure the RJ Reynolds factory tour which was on the agenda for each visit. Several of us laughed about how much our grandparents disliked smoking, yet thought we should all learn how to make cigarettes.

Adam and Aaron also visited Iowa. They loved visiting our grandparents’ farm and had a very close relationship with my brother, Derek, who is their age. Adam and Aaron were like brothers to Derek as he was the only boy in our family. He remembers them showing up in Umbro shorts, Nike shirts, and cool shoes while he wore secondhand jeans, over-sized sneakers, and a shirt from an older cousin. They camped out in the backyard on several occasions, with stern rebukes from the house to ‘get to bed’. They had lots of adventures and wrestling matches, and one particularly raucous pillow fight ended with Aaron vomiting. Derek said Jim was ‘piping mad’.

When Aaron came to visit our house, he complained about having to weed in the garden, like we all did. He was also the neighborhood ladies’ man. The second he arrived he was scoping out the neighborhood girls and making grand romantic gestures. As young adults, Adam and Aaron visited Derek in Chicago. They went out the night before they flew home and never made it to the airport the next day. Derek said they knew they’d catch heat, but decided it was worth it for their limited time together.

Despite the distance our family loved Aaron, and he shared the same love with his cousins and grandparents in North Carolina. Those of us here are sad and we grieve this tremendous loss. But others in our family who have gone before us now greet him with a warm embrace.

As a young man, Aaron had many close friends who adored him. Many of his friends shared memorials about Aaron’s essential role in their life as a comrade, confidante, and someone to lean on. He has clearly made a lasting impact.

The hardest part of life is when things happen we don’t understand, and we have to trust that God has a better plan than we do. As I wrote this, I kept thinking about Jeremiah’s Chapter 29, Verse 11 in the Bible: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

I believe this is true for Aaron. I believe God has plans, hope, and a future for him. Sometimes God’s plans unfold during our time on Earth, and sometimes He calls us home early to fulfill our destiny. In my Bible study group, we often talk about people who die from cancer and other illnesses, and people who die young. Sometimes the healing takes place after we go home to God.

I have no doubt that Aaron will continue to bring joy to our lives, in memories, in little reminders of his presence that pop up, and in the love we have for each other. As a parent myself this hits home and I can’t help but think of my own children. The lesson for me is that I want my children to accept others the way Aaron did. I want my children to bring humor and joy to life the way Aaron did.

Maya Angelou, the famous poet, said: ”I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

May we all strive to leave the world with more happiness than how we found it. May we accept others unconditionally without judgement. May we always choose love just like Aaron did.

Although, I believe Aaron would rather have me end this for him saying, “Peace and love to my Homies.”