Timothy James Pereira DaSilva

i rember when we use to live a the town house and we went out biking and we were at mikes house and we were having lots of fun and we didint want to go home yet so tim told me to role in the dirt and rip my paints and rip my paints so we had an excuce to be late whell we rode home and it worked  so every me tim and chris went bikeing i riped my paints and roled in the dirt and told my mum and manny that i fell so we could be 40 mins late i wish we could still go bikeing togher that stoped working about 2 years ago i wish we could go bikeing togher again all of us but some body can dreem i haave lotse of memories

Timmy DaSilva was not just a member of our BMX family -he had become part of the Pearson family.

 

I had spent more time with Timmy this past month that I have my own kids - Airdrie, Crabtree and the track build allowed Timmy and I to chat about all sorts of things, family, BMX, life, futures.  On our drive to Kingston (en-route to Crabtree) Tim and I spoke of the things that were important to him - his chance to prove himself on the track at the Elite level - his chance to build a track based on his ideas and design - the respect he had for his family, his friends, and his huge love for his niece.

 

I had recently contacted the Milton Newspaper to do a story on Tim and his success at the UCI races - he made the mains in the toughest classes in Canada. When I told Timmy this, he grinned that wonderful grin and said “That’s cool – you know why - I have women of all ages walk up to me in stores and say ‘Hey. Don’t I know you?’, and I would thrust out my chest, stand tall, adjust my ball cap, put on a deep voice and say “Sure you do, I’m Timmy DaSilva – I was in the newspaper” and then he would wink, and walk away smiling.  When he was telling me this story he was acting it out at the same time and he had Martin and me in stitches of laughter.

 

This past week in Halton I was absolutely impressed with Tim’s attitude, dedication, patience (especially when Martin was “instructing” him) and his desire to build the best track.  A track that would help Ontario riders reach the podium -  he never just thought about Tim, he made sure every jump was safe for the 5 year old, but challenging for the 15 year old and fun for the 25 year olds – it was always about everyone else.

 

Tim had the uncanny ability to laugh, listen and learn and tease at the same time, for instance, Martin had taken painstaking hours measuring and staking out the track so that it would be built to National specs - and Tim would watch him put in the last stake, wait until Martin was looking directly at him and would deliberately move or bend or push in the stakes, yell “Hey old man - look” and wheel away in his bobcat so Martin couldn’t catch him – all the while laughing loudly.

 

Another laugh was when Timmy was walking around shirtless (showing off his muscles – to whom I am not sure as it was all guys on the track) and you could see the top of his underwear. Well, Chris suddenly yelled across the width of the start hill “Tim! You’ve got my underwear on!” The reply Timmy gave made me smile wide - “No Chris! Mom just bought these for me!” I said “Timmy - did you just say your mom still buys you your underwear?” and Tim and Chris smiled and replied “Yea! She knows our size, we always buy the wrong size – and you know what Nicky, she still makes our doctor and dentist appointments too!” Well we all laughed and they both looked at me and said that they loved the fact that their mom still took care of them at their age.

 

On Friday night, I had a chance to say a few things to Tim, things that Dean and I had often talked about - I told him how much we admired him, how we respected him, how Dean and I treated him as one of our own - and that we were so proud of him, and that if our kids ended up like him that we would be truly blessed!

 

Of the many emails and phone calls that we received, one was from Samantha Cools, World Champion who had spent time in Airdrie and Crabtree with Tim.  She would like me to forward her blessings to the DaSilvas and asked me to tell you that she will be racing the Worlds for Timmy.

 

She also told us that herself and Aaron Lepp would like to come to Halton Place and finish the track for Tim. 

 

Timor and Megan, owners of Halton Place, the DaSilva family and the Ontario BMX family want to complete Tims dream and we will finish the track for Tim. 

 

Halton Place would also like for the track to be named the Tim DaSilva BMX Track

 

Dean, myself and our boys mean every word I have said.  He was Kyle’s hero – he was Brady’s buddy and he was our friend.  In the years we have known Tim he had become a man before our eyes – Dean and I loved him like a son, respected him as a rider, and admired him as a man.

 

God Bless you Tim, your time with us made our lives so much brighter and fuller – thank you for that – God speed.  We love you buddy.