Today is an anniversary for me. Today marks both an end and also a beginning. Two years ago today my best friend Spencer lost his brave battle with Leukemia. Two years ago my brother died. Two years ago life without him began.

We had known each other 27 years, came up through the same schools, were raised quite differently but had so many things in common. In our teens we were in a band together. He was a great guitarist who loved Jimmy Page and Hendrix and he had a passion for music that I had never encountered before. Spencer suffered all of his life from Hemophilia; he suffered more pain through this than he ever let on to any of us but he never let it dull his passion for music or dampen his sick and twisted sense of humor. I think that part of my sick humor stems from long term exposure to him over the years! You couldn't help but love him and laugh at his ways! What he lacked in physicality he more than made up for in presence and personality.

He was there for me to get me at the airport when my Dad was dying in hospital. Spen was sick as a dog with cancer, no hair from chemotherapy and two coats on...stood out in the freezing cold to avoid germs, just waiting for my flight to come in and take me to the hospital. Nothing can buy you a friend like that...Nothing. There's not a day goes by that I don't think of him in some way and think of the good times and laugh. I try not to think of the pain he endured in his last months; he would have ridiculed the crap out of me for wasting time thinking that way. I just think of the laughs we shared over the years, the conversations we had and the fact that I loved him like a brother.

Some people fade away when they die but Spencer isn't one of those people. There were and are too many people that knew and loved him for that to happen. All of his friends and family carry a piece of him inside them wherever they are and his memory endures.

If you ever have a friend as good to you as Spencer was to me then you truly are a very fortunate individual. Do yourself a favor, stop to pinch yourself first and then tell your friend that you love them. You may not have the opportunity again.

Here's to you Spen, watching us all from the ether. I miss you mate!

ASH