From the day you were born you followed me everywhere I went. I remember you only wanted whatever I had, and not a duplicate; you wanted the one in my hand. Not because you were jealous, but because you wanted to be just like me. I hated the fact that you put my matchbox cars in your mouth. I never forgave you for staining my Yoda shirt with your vomit.

Dude that bow and arrow stunt is the most classic move anyone ever did. You really pissed off Dad that time. That one moment gave me and you more laughter than probably any other thing. No one else gets it, but we do.

You sucked at sports, including snow boarding just in case you were wondering. You might have been a decent skate boarder but we didn't have that one in common. You looked good in a football uniform though, better than usual.

Those middle years went by fast, I was gone for 8 years at one point before I came home again. From that point forward I visited you a lot. When I came to the village you would sleep on the couch every night just waiting for me to come home and pay attention to you. I always did too, you might not of liked it but I never forgot you once.

I loved it when you came to Seattle for the summer. You never could hold your liquor, not at 16 and not at 26. Everyone there loved you from day one, Sean still asks me about you every time we talk. You know he owes his life to you and I from that one day, you know what I'm talking about. Me and you worked together and saved his life, I admired you so much that day.

Words can't explain the trip to Europe we took. I think you learned something about yourself on that trip - everyone loved you. You made friends everywhere you went without trying. How the fuck did the hot girl go for you and not me? I still call bullshit on that but whatever everyone gets lucky once. The running of the bulls was fantastic and doing that with you will be one of my fondest memories forever. No one can understand that chaos unless you were there. I never thought I would admit it, but you did beat my ass that night in Lisbon Portugal - I'm still to this day not sure how. I had a lot of respect for you after that.

You know when the real bad part of our lives happened - did you wonder if I ever forgave you? The answer is I never blamed you, it was not your fault at all. Did you know that? I don't think you did. We got so close after that, it almost seemed like it was meant to be that way just for that reason alone.

You coming here to live with me was the best thing ever. 2 years we lived under the same roof and I loved being around you. Your attitude pissed me off sometimes but it was because you were changing into a man. You packed in so many life lessons so fast it was hell on you sometimes. I loved watching you do something that you didn't want to do, it showed me your true qualities as a man. You never did it quietly, you'd rant and rave about it but that's ok - you were doing the right things just loudly. You made friends with all my friends without even trying. You excelled at your job and impressed everyone.

You were always a pudgy kid. You started your own style of weight loss that pretty much included not eating and working out 2 hours a day. I was jealous for so many reasons including the fact that you could restrain yourself that well, that you had the time to work out that much, and most of all your results. I never told you how good you looked because I was jealous. I was always skinny when we were kids and you were the fat one. Look at us now huh? Those two pictures you sent up to disarray were gay as shit, you're not John Basedow so cut it out. However, you looked fucking great man. Fucking great.

You left here after a couple of years because you knew that being here under my wing wasn't the right thing. Crazy when you think about that, your whole life you just wanted to be like me and then all of a sudden you need to do it yourself. You ultimately moved to Florida instead of going back to the village. Do you know how proud of you I am for that? Words can't express how impressed with you I am for doing that.

I wish I had gotten a chance to come down to Florida and see the house that you were living in, see the life that you had created for yourself. You were just starting out down there so I know you thought it was nothing but you don't know how great what you just did was. I wish I could tell you that now.

I will never be the same without you, but what is really sad to me is that I've gotten used to you changing me. You changed me the last time on Friday December 5th 2008 at 1:00am when all of you and half of me died.

All that is left of you now are the changes you gave to everyone who knew you. That's why I couldn't think of any better way to say good bye to you than to say it in front of the people you touched.

I will see you one last time Thursday at 4pm in Loudonville, OH at the Byerly Lindsay funeral home. We will have a service for you on Friday at 11am.