Student's life celebrated in memorial

[img1]Hundreds remembered senior Kyle Charvat at his memorial service Saturday, focusing on the good times in spite of the pain -- just as many said Charvat led his own life.

Charvat passed away Tuesday, Jan. 17, at the UW Medical Center after a three-year battle with brain cancer. He was 22 years old.

Those who knew and loved Charvat filled the Overlake Christian Church chapel in Redmond Wash., far exceeding the expected guest count.

Reporter John Sharify, who documented the Woodinville native's battle on KOMO 4 News over the last year, read a eulogy written by Charvat's parents, Sheryl and Glenn Charvat.

"Our love for Kyle is as intense today as it was at the moment of his birth," they wrote. "We wish he could still be here to make us laugh and do all the things he'd planned."

His parents recounted numerous anecdotes in the eulogy, with several focusing on Charvat's experiences in his fraternity, Theta Chi.

At an event during his first week as a pledge, Charvat stood up on a chair and yelled, "May I have your attention, please? This is an emergency." Charvat paused. "Does anyone have any gum?" The Theta Chi brothers burst into laughter and Charvat wound up with several sticks of gum and new friends, they wrote.

Along with several slideshows, a home video Charvat made for fiancee Megan Oldfield last Valentine's Day gave the audience a private peek into their relationship.

"[Megan] was his angel," Charvat's parents wrote. "They had more fun together in a few years than many couples have in a lifetime."

[img2]The strength of Charvat and Oldfield's love is rare in people so young, said the Rev. Dr. Tim Klerekoper, who led the service.

"Besides his parents, his one love was Megan," Klerekoper said. "He met her at the gym, and the joke is that he saw her on the Thighmaster, and the rest was history. Some of the kids wanted to know if he'd known her before, and his answer was, 'No way. If I'd seen her before, I would have known.'"

Jason Riemath, one of Charvat's closest friends, took the stage and performed a song he wrote after Charvat's death. The audience joined in later, softly singing Oasis' "Wonderwall," one of Charvat's favorites.

Following the service, the Charvats held a reception and allowed guests to share their own personal thoughts and memories.

Charvat's sense of humor always stood out, his life-long friend Nick Questad said at the reception.

"He'd always want to go to Baskin Robbins," Questad said. "I would ask him, 'Kyle, why do you want to go? You only like vanilla.' The reason we'd go there was so he could get all the little sample spoons, so on the way home, every time we'd stop at a stop light, we'd roll up the napkins and make nice little spit wads and have contests over who could fling more spit wads onto cars. His mom always let us do it."

Charvat's genuine, kind heart was apparent through the last days of his life and left an impression on everyone he met, Klerekoper said.

"He wasn't afraid of looking you in the eye and saying 'I love you'," he said.

The brothers of Theta Chi will hold a student service celebrating Charvat's life Tuesday, Jan. 31 at 7 p.m. at Covenant House on 19th Ave.