Hey Darren,

I remember you were next to me during a warm-up for rehearsal at UCCC. It was really quiet and I whispered to you a joke and you started laughing (I think you were 14 at the time.) Marti was leading the warm-up and asked me if I knew why you were laughing. I said no and you said that I had said something funny and the others laughed. I had been caught, thanks to you. I hope you are well. Say hello to your grandparents. Until we meet again...I bid you peace.

Hey Darren,

I remember you were next to me during a warm-up for rehearsal at UCCC. It was really quiet and I whispered to you a joke and you started laughing (I think you were 14 at the time.) Marti was leading the warm-up and asked me if I knew why you were laughing. I said no and you said that I had said something funny and the others laughed. I had been caught, thanks to you. I hope you are well. Say hello to your grandparents. Until we meet again...I bid you peace.

to darren and the bohan family,

as the holidays and a new year approach, i—and many others—think of you and send you love.

we really miss you, darren. i'm no closer to any sense of understanding than i was when this first happened, but i do know that we must never take life for granted and must strive to help the world during the time we have on earth. thinking of you, and trying to honor you through my day-to-day goings on—pam

I meet Darren through a friend of his from high school, Brandon. We were both crashing at Brandon's West Village apartment, for a short interim, as we looked for a place to permanently settle. In Brandon's one bedroom apartment, we managed, one of us would have the couch, the other the blow up mattress, when it came to sleeping arrangements. It's funny thinking back about how the three of us cohabitated in that space.
Darren had just moved back to NYC from California. At the same time, I was just going through a marital separation that would lead to a divorce. Darren was adjusting from his move from California, and separation from a gal that he lived with for some time, and still had feelings for, but that relationship was over.
So, many a night, we use to sit in Brandon's apartment and drink a beer (or two), and talk about women, music, and whatever else became the topic du jour.
One thing about Darren, he was sooooo laid back. It kind of got to me in a way, as I am the high strung worrier type. There were times, that I kind of wished I could be more like Darren, as he just kind of rolled easily, on the rollercoaster of life. Darren never seemed to have too many worries.
Darren also loved his music. I remember he would take his guitar and just go down and play in the subway halls, for kicks, not tips. Sometimes he would jam with other musicians he would meet down there. He told me, he liked the accostics of the subway tile walls.
One morning, before Darren headed out to work, wearing a borrowed white shirt from Brandon's closet, he showed me this Chinese fortune telling system, whose name I do not recall. It was a real simple system, that involved throwing three chinese coins out on the floor. You had one toss of the coins a day, and the combination of the three coins, heads-tails-heads, or whatever the combination may be, could be referenced in the "fortune" book that came with the coins.
This coin combination's passage would be your day's fortune.
Sadly, I never would have thought, that Darren's peaceful soul's fortune would end as it so horrifically.
Now, as we near the third anniversary of 9-11, I am thinking of him...and I wish his soul, and his family...peace.

DARREN ONLY NOW CAN YOU KNOW HOW MUCH YOUR LIFE MEANT TO SO MANY PEOPLE. HOW MUCH YOU ARE LOVED AND MISSED. PEOPLE THAT WILL NEVER KNOW YOU PRAY FOR YOU. YOUR BEST FRIENDS LIKE KEVIN WHO CHERISH YOU AND MISS YOU SO MUCH KEEP YOUR SPIRIT ALIVE . YOU WORKED THAT DAY AS A FAVOR FOR SOMEONE. I GUESS IT WAS YOUR FATE. YOU WERE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE THERE. BUT YOU WERE... GOD CHOSE YOU WITH MANY OTHERS TO BE ANGELS. THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO PRAYS FOR DARREN AND KEEPS HIS SPIRIT AS WE DO. ALSO A SPECIAL THANKYOU TO ALL THE FIREMEN AND RESCUE WORKERS WHO GAVE SO MUCH TO US ALL. GOD BLESS YOU AND YOUR FAMILIES. THE BOHAN FAMILY

It was Darren's photo that I saw posted at Union Square during a vigil, just few days after the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center. I had my camera with me and took a lot of pictures of the crowd. I took pictures of those who were missing. There were so many of them posted all over. It was Darren's picture and a brief description about him that caught my attention. It could have been me. I was supposed to pick up my papers from my lawyer's office at the World Trade Center. His office was at the 16th Floor of Tower 2. I didn't pick up my immigration papers that morning. I went to my office in the Bronx instead. My papers, by the way, were destroyed.

Like many New Yorkers at that time, I was stricken by grief, anger, and questions that remain to be answered.

I still have the photo of Darren Bohan. I plan to include it in my mix media, an art piece commemorating the US soldiers who died in the recent Iraq war.

Darren and the many young US soldiers who died in the Iraq war deserve to be remembered EVERYDAY.

Darren, a year later and you are still missed. Rest in Peace.

I miss you brother. The world is somehow duller without you around.