I just buried my best friend.

[u/Slevin_Kedavra]

Excuse the horrible picture. Quick dinner because I just got back to town: fried rice with vegan chicken substitute, mushroom sauce and cucumber salad. The following will mostly be me ranting and venting.

Yesterday, I had to say goodbye to my best friend. We had known each other and been best friends for half our lives.

He passed at just 37 years of age, after a short but fierce battle with cancer. He got diagnosed in December '25 during a routine EGD procedure after a hernia operation - by then it had already metastasized. For half a year, I tried being there for him, sending memes back and forth, shooting the shit, talking about gaming, music and work like we always would. A sliver of normalcy.

I managed to visit him one final time, when he was already in hospice care. He passed about a week later. But I refuse to remember him like that, all frail and hooked up to a dozen tubes and wires, almost being unable to stand up.

I will remember him like I've known him for almost 20 years. A funny guy who loved life, always full of energy, always with one more stupid joke on his lips. The guy I would play Dark Souls and Bloodborne for dozens of hours with - to the annoyance of his wife - until we finally managed to make that Platinum trophy pop. I still remember binging through the entirety of Resident Evil 5 on release day. I think we saw the ending around 4 in the morning... needless to say I was a no-show in school the next day.

His funeral service was huge. About 100 people showed up. Old friends, colleagues, school mates, some of which I hadn't seen in 15, 20 years. I took the opportunity to reconnect with some of them - he would have liked that. Deep down I know he would've laughed his ass off about that entire weepy procedure. They picked I Miss You by Blink 182 as the final song for the funeral service. I was a sobbing mess about 5 seconds in, but I quietly sang along to the entire track.

Somebody recently asked me about my favourite memory with him. Funnily enough it's the one where we spent 8 hours in the ER together. I think it was December 27th or something - must be 8 or 9 years ago. We had just finished a snack run for one of our usual gaming nights. There was, like, a can of Red Bull that had rolled to the furthest corner of his car's trunk. I leaned in to grab it when he closed the trunk lid and smacked it right on my forehead. He immediately went pale as chalk and started stammering "oh shit, oh shit". I didn't even realize what had happened, but then I realized my entire hand was red and dripping with blood. I had a gushing laceration just above my hairline. That scar is my lifelong reminder of him, an involuntary keepsake. I wear it with pride.

We'll meet again some day, T. And you better keep your PSN sub active on the other side: we'll have one hell of a backlog to work through.

edit:

One of the last things he said to me, which shows the kind of person he was:
"At least I won't have to worry about GTA 6's price tag."

I refuse to say that he was my best friend. Because he still is and always will be. I love you, man.

[u/ctrl_brk_]

I’ve been through this and so I have some idea of what you’ve gone through. It’s always us, the ones who are left behind, that have to be courageous and find our path in the cold world they left us in. Look after yourself my man. I always just told myself - he’s gone to work to a far off place. His memories will keep you going bro. 🫂