My close friend Brent Simmons died a couple weeks ago. He was killed in an airplane crash along with somebody else who was the pilot in Brent's new plane in West Jordan. I worked for him in his cabinet shop for a year and off and on after that. He and I also made cabinets for my mom last February, he also helped remodel our kitchen.
Brent always gave me advice about life and shared many stories about almost everything. We even talked about each other's problems. We even bull crapped around a lot, he was very entertaining and that's what made me look forward to work every morning. He taught me a lot about woodworking and made me a better woodworker. Working for him was the first time I worked at a real cabinet job, and I learned a lot. I really liked his cabinet shop, it was in an old chicken coop in the south part of Manti and inside it was a really nice place to work in, he had $180,000 worth of machines in it. The machines were the nice thing about making cabinets, made the job a lot easier. He always talked about how Glad garbage sack factory is in a big barn too. The winters in the cabinet shop was always cozy, burning all the scrap cherry, alder, oak, and many other kind woods in the wood stove which made the place nice and warm and smelled so good. This job was the nicest job I've ever had and Brent was one the nicest bosses I've ever had. Too bad work got too slow.
Brent had a love of flying remote controlled airplanes and had a whole bunch hanging in his office. Everyday after work, I always had to stay another 20-30 minutes to listen to his love of planes. He always had a dream in flying in his own plane. Just 4 weeks ago or so, he sent me an email and told me what his wife bought him, a plane! Just a little 15,000 dollar plane and he was excited about it. On the day before he died, I was going to go to his shop and talk to him about his plane but I never did. Now I will regret about not coming to see him that day.
Things are never the same without him, and I lost a good friend. But I know he is in a better place.
