A guy that I didn’t really know.

 

Back in 2004 I designed and made wedding invitations for a couple I had met through wedding planning. They were both charismatic and had unique last names, so we became friends. I was fortunate to do many projects with them.  Years passed and I received a friend suggestion on FB, so I sent a request. It was accepted. It wasn’t until I received a message asking how I knew Adam (who turned out was the groom’s brother) that I realized I had made a mistake. I can’t recall if this ended up being discussed with Adam himself, but either way, we remained FB friends.

Things I noticed about Adam: He was fun and really enthusiastic. He had A LOT of friends and was well-loved. He was pretty self-confident. I’m not a fan of shirtless pics, but he seemed so pleased with himself in all of them. He led an interesting life. He took risks even when they didn’t always pan out. He was genuine and one-of-a-kind.

When Joel and I moved to Franklin Park, we discovered that Adam and his husband lived a street over. I thought it would be cool if we all had dinner, but he ended up moving away before I would step outside of my comfort zone of introverted-ness to ask. I did run into him at the grocery once, where in passing I said hello and startled him because he didn’t know who the heck I was.

Adam passed away almost two weeks ago. His mom had posted that he had a lung infection and instead of improving, he declined. Things that are shitty about this : He was so vibrant and way too young to die. He was in the hospital on his birthday and couldn’t eat cake. He’s going to miss Pride Month and he really seemed to enjoy a good parade. Most of all though, it is a complete tragedy that the world lost him. I’m still kind of in disbelief over it and he was a guy that I didn’t really know.