13:52 <@Delta> oh fuck
13:52 <@Delta> seriously?

Some of you might know, I’m not a fan of the finite certainty of death. I try not to think about it because it gives me anxiety attacks sometimes where I just completely freak out. I don’t enjoy the idea of spending 60-80 years (or much less) on this dust ball acquiring skills and knowledge to all sorts of things, to just have it taken away in a second. Religion will tell me there is a heaven and a hell, but I can’t see it? I don’t know that it even exists. Perhaps it is not death I fear, but the uncertainty of death. What does it lead to? What does it mean? Where do I go? Do I go nowhere?

But I digress.

One of the six of us laid off last week passed away yesterday of a seizure, Brad. This guy was amazing, and that is literally no joke. Happiest guy I’ve ever seen, to the point where I wondered if he was on medication or something. Always talking, to himself, always laughing, to himself, always cheerful to everyone around the office. He and another former co-worker helped plan fun things for this company to do where no one else would have thought about it much less executed it. Poker tournaments, cook-outs, the Christmas Party at City Steam, this guy was on top of everything. The last thing we were going to be a part of before they laid us off was a pot-luck lunch for the monthly meeting. He was going to make chili, but I had voiced chili before. He was willing to make something else so that I could make chili. I told him he could go ahead and make chili, I was cool with making something else.

Brad had his moments though. He’d play weird music all day, and annoy the shit out of his desk neighbors. He would constantly misspell words in emails to customers or to co-workers. He had a penchant for self-realizations that were pretty common knowledge. Somewhere along the line, he misspelled his name as “Bron” on something, and the name stuck. Bron the Invincible. Bronly International Airport. Sir Bronsly the Adventurer. Mister Bron. All of us in Production Support joked about creating an RPG or Visual Novel game depicting Bron’s adventures through the land of Field-Comm.

But no matter how much we joked, or picked on him for fun, none of us could ever hate him. He made it impossible for anyone to hate him. I’ve never seen him angry, never seen him sad, he would take dozens of phone calls and seemingly not even flinch. When we all got laid off, I reached out to him that night on Facebook and told him if he needed help with his computer repair side business, to let me know and I’d help. He replied he’d give me a call, and that he was working on a contract that should float him for awhile. Yesterday I made a friend request on Facebook just to see what was up with him. That was the day the music lied.

I may not have known him well outside of work, or at all really, but it’s absolutely heartbreaking to see someone who seemed to love life, and love everyone, far more than me, simply disappear in a blink of an eye. Worse still, will be his family, children, and friends he left behind. This sort of thing happens every day, but you only hear about it on the news when it happens en masse.

If you’re of the religious persuasion, include him in your prayers tonight. If you’re of the atheist persuasion, just do whatever you want. If you’re of the badass biker persuasion, pour a drink. Whatever your persuasion of remembrance is, keep a slot open this week for Sir Bron the Great. Lord knows if there is a heaven, I expect B-Rad’s to be a household name by the time I get there.