April makes me a little sad.

7 years ago this April, my friend Mike was killed in a drowning accident while crossing an Alaskan Glacier.

To this day, I miss him more than I ever would have thought. It’s hard to define what our relationship was precisely, but I loved him a lot and he was a great friend.  I wish I’d known him better and spent more time with him before he died, I missed out on too much.  I was in my early to mid twenties when we worked together and played together. What did I know about recognizing a quality person to love? Not a whole lot, I can tell you.

I was thinking about Mike today and a playlist formed in my mind.

He used to play “Stairway to Heaven” for me on his guitar.

We saw Arlo Guthrie in concert twice. We met him and shook his hand both times… he has a tiny little hand and signs autographs with a purple marker.

He gave me a Sting item every year for my birthday… and he used to listen to this song while he worked his graveyard janitor job at BYU.

He liked the Smashing Pumpkins, and this song just sounds like him to me.

That’s my April tribute to MY OLD FRIEND.