I truly do appreciate all the kind words and well wishes. Words may seem shallow to the person speaking them, but they are of invaluable help to the person in pain.

TJ was a great guy. The memories I cherish the most are of us as kids. It seemed as though our sole purpose in life was to irritate TJ's father (we were technically stepbrothers). ANYTHING we could think of to irritate my stepdad, we would do it. Hide his keys, respond to ANYTHING he said with "mmmmkayyyy?", whether or not he asked a question. We were constantly getting grounded.

I remember one time when my stepdad took us all out for a ride, and we passed by a field of cows. We convinced my little sister, Amber, that the cows were horses and that horses were cows. No matter what anybody else would tell her, we reinforced that those were horses, not cows. Amber brought a book of farm animals home and tried to show us we were wrong, but we ended up convincing her that the book was wrong! This went on for months, and it actually caused some issues with her teacher at school. In hindsight, it was a horrible thing to do, but we were kids!

We would go on long walks and talk for hours. He was my best friend. We were unable to spend a lot of time together since my move to California, but we kept in touch by phone and social media. The last time I actually saw him was four years ago. That kills me.

I'll be headed back to Maryland on Friday for the funeral. I'm not looking forward to it, but he deserves a proper send off. He'll get it.

Again, thanks so much for the support and kind words. It really does help.