Game on for teenage store owner

DENVER - Elijah Taylor never had much family. His father left him and his mother while he was still a baby. To get through the hardships of life, Taylor and his mom used the escape of video games.

"My mom having been young when she had me, you know, kinda raised me on the games she was playing at the time," Taylor said.

His mom, Dani Jo Perko was 18 years old, living on her own as a single mom working full-time.

"She was just an incredibly strong person," Taylor said.

They bonded over video games and her passion became his passion, until she died.

"My mother passed away when I was 17 and I had to start working full-time," Taylor said.

He dropped out of school, got his GED, and found a job at a video game store.

"You know, I can either just grieve and wallow for a while and just feel sorry for myself or I can do what my mom would've done and do something with my life," Taylor said.

After working for someone else for a while, Taylor decided to open his own video game store at the age of 18. Game On, at Alameda and Zuni in Denver, had its grand opening this week. His friends helped him build the store.

"I figured I'd throw my hat into the ring and give him a hand, help him out in my spare time whenever I could," said Derrick Garcia, a friend. "Over the past year or so, he's really come out of his shell."

Game On is a dream of Taylor's based off of his and his mother's huge private video game collection.

"I could look through here and be like, 'Oh, I remember playing that with my mom when I was just a kid,'" Taylor said.

Taylor wants to build a community of video game enthusiasts who can share their passion like he and his mother did.

"You know, really close knit, kinda like family," Taylor said.

A family based on his family. His mother died at the age of 35. Taylor said doctors determined it was natural causes, but could not find a specific reason.

"I hope, you know, she'd be proud of me. I hope that, you know, if she were here now, she would be proud of all this," Taylor said. "This is a store that she would like, you know, she would shop here."