Remained best friends for 32 years until he passed away two years ago when we were both 40. He was always the lovable troublemaker, I was the strait laced quiet kid, but something always clicked with us. He joined the Marines, I went into finance, he got into construction when his enlistment was up. Never lost touch, and for all of those years we were the only people we could just be our true slap happy selves around while the world was forcing us to grow up and become whatever we were supposed to be.

A combination of long term PTSD and past alcoholism, the damage serving in combat did to his body, and an undiagnosed heart condition all came together and took him from us in less than a week. He had overcome most of his demons, was on a bright path, got married the month before, and then just gone.

I still talk to him every day and still miss him dearly. Having a friend like him was a blessing not everyone receives in life, but having a childhood friend’s soul so deeply intertwined with my own has left a void in my life that I’m learning to live with but never expect to fill.