Words that have been used to describe Taye include: spunky, feisty and artistic.
She came into the world with her fists tightly clenched, just raring to go. As she grew into toddlerhood, she didn’t learn to walk, she learned to run. Wherever she was going, whether it was in the house or outside, she was running to get there. I never realized what the rush was all about, but maybe she knew her time on the Earth would be limited.
It was this type of drive that gave her so much intensity and passion in whatever she was attempting, be it art, skiing or cycling.
Taye was always a girl who marched to her own drummer, and she did not suffer fools gladly. She was sharp witted, with a sophisticated brand of humor that not everyone understood.
While she could come off prickly, once you got to know her, you would know she was extremely sensitive, and no one could judge her harder than herself.
Taye loved the outdoors; all of it was her backyard. In the winter it was skiing both Alpine and Nordic, and when the snow melted, it was on to road cycling.
She always said, “I may not be the fastest, but I work at it extremely hard.”
It took a couple of years of road cycling, before she felt truly confident. She was just coming into her own, and expected a good cycling season this summer, and looked forward to cross cycling in the autumn.
Taye won her age division in the 2012 and 2013 Oregon State Championship Criteriums put on by OBRA, and got invitations to attend the USA Cycling Talent/ ID camps.
When not on skis or a bike, she would usually have pen to paper, or her computer sketch pad out drawing everything and anything that suited her fancy. She wanted to be known as a digital artist, and had dreams of being a syndicated cartoonist.
Her flame went out too soon, and we will surely miss the adult she would’ve become.
God speed to you my sweet daughter. We love you so.
“I walked a mile with Pleasure.
She chattered all the way.
But left me none the wiser
For all she had to say.
I walked a mile with Sorrow
And ne'er a word said she;
But oh, the things I learned from her
When Sorrow walked with me!”
Robert Browning