Life is filled with hard days but today will go down as a particularly hard one for myself and my family. Today we memorialize my baby brother Keenan Thomas Boyles. July 26th 2022, we lost Keenan and the level of heartbreak I feel now was unimaginable until the early hours of that morning. In many ways I knew this day was coming and now realize the last few years with my brother have been a blessing in of themselves. Keenan was an amazing person that had a special quality that not many have. When my brother was born his guardian angel must have wrapped him in a blanket of charisma and confidence. I was always astonished with the adeptness my brother would use to make friends and more importantly talk his way out of trouble.
As a young boy Keenan was a real goofball. He was always playing, exploring and testing new boundaries. Keenan was the type of kid that laughed at getting punished which inevitably made him the soul deciders of what was worth doing early in life. My brothers Kip and Keenan were a real unit when we were kids. You would rarely see the two of them apart. Looking back, I am a little envious of the close childhood relationship my brothers had. That’s not to say all of us as brother we were not close. Us three kids we spent most of our time running around the back yard, wrestling, playing videos games and with action figures. We went on family camping trips and to church camp. We made childhood memories that will last a lifetime and I am very grateful to my brothers for that. God, I remember Keenan loving swinging outside, Ninja Turtles, X-men, collecting Pokemon cards and he was a big fan of Zelda games.
Enviably early childhood ends and we all for better or worse become teenagers. Due to the pressures of that period of life we didn’t spend as much time with each other as we had in previous years. Even though we still found time to play smash brothers and Mario party resulting in hundreds of dollars in damaged n64 controllers. Keenan was a little punk always taking things from my room without asking or trying to hang out when I chasing a girl which made me madder than hell. Only now do I realize he did those things because he looked up to me and loved me just wanted to be more like and closer to his older brother. I ended up leaving the state when Keenan was about 14-15 years old. I missed out on the last years of his teenage career. From the pictures and stories, I understand Kip and Keenan continued to spend a lot of time together as loving brothers. Keenan ended up going to High School where he used his gifts of charisma and funny disposition to build relationship and make lifelong friends some of you are even here today. Since I missed out this important part of my brother’s life, I would love to hear any stories, memories or feelings you may have to share. No pressure in sharing in such a public forum but feel free to approach me directly to talk or get my contact info to share another time.
As a young adult Keenan was nothing short of wild. At that time Keenan hated staying in and spent the majority of his time with friends or making new ones. He loved the festival and rave scene. The bright flashing lights, pounding beats and drug induced euphoria drew my brother in and it was something he truly loved. When things were lower key, we spent a lot of time smoking together out in the garage and on the weekend would gather around the bonfire in the backyard with friend laughing and imbibing spirits. Life for the most part was good and we all had a ton of fun. Memories to last a lifetime. Keenan was always ready to take thing to the next level much like Alice he was willing to find the bottom of the rabbit hole. With an excess of fun comes an excess of problems. Like many of us Keenan developed an unhealthy relationship with drugs and alcohol a burden he would carry to his very last day.
Life is unfair for some more than others and Keenan had accumulated an unfair number of demons riding his shoulders. Much of his natural shining light was dulled by his internal struggles throughout the years but I always held a hope he would conquer them. Even through adversity Keenan touched so many lives and formed new bonds because Keenan’s god given gifts were so powerful. Other than being charismatic and strong-willed Keenan was incredibly intelligent. Keenan could have put any 40-year veteran pharmacist to shame knowing every chemical or natural compounds name, use and function. He understood deeply human brain function, chemical reactions and the underlying phycology that went with it. He was an avid reader enjoyed absorbing history sharing his thoughts on it and how it applied in today’s politics.
Speaking of politics one of my favorite memories of Keenan happened during the 2016 election. It was a great time for us memeing on the world and dabbing on janies. During the campaign Keenan and I decided to go to a Trump rally together. We had an excited car right to the plaza and waited in the extremely long line. We laughed and had fun with the people around us. There was a certain magic in the air. We got inside and patently waited having fun with the signs and laughing with the cast of characters around us. Then at a moment the crowd quieted as a security detail moved its way through the crowd and at the center was Sheriff Joe. Joe was pressing flesh and stomping for his own campaign but not for long. Keenan waited until the security detail was in the middle of the rally then it happened. Keenan screamed at the top of his lung “Fuck you Sheriff Joe” “You’re going to Fucking Jail” “Enjoy the tents you fat fuck”. I knew Keenan had just put us in danger of getting kicked out or worse have mob violence inflicted on us but I was helpless to do anything but laugh my ass off. Joe and his detail scurried off faster than they had arrived and no one even said anything to us about it but we knew who the sniper in the rafter was aiming at.. That’s who Keenan was an unbashful character who believed in speaking truth to power even if it was 10,000 to 2.
Many of my most recent memories with Keenan were more innocuous . Just hanging out talking about politics, the latest happenings on 4chan, our new favorite conspiracy theory, the newest magic deck we made, video games we were playing and the struggles in life we were dealing with. I was always happy to see him at family events and holidays some of our best conversations happened on those days.
Keenan and Kip were groomsmen at my wedding and I was so happy to have those 2 by my side on the most important day of my life. Keenan did his best to be a good uncle to my children and I hope they remember silly fun uncle Keenan. I will always appreciate that.
The last time I saw my brother was the day of my hand surgery. I was really apprehensive and my brother did everything he could to comfort me as much as possible seeing as he had been through a few surgeries himself. Before I left, he gave me a big hug, told me he loved me and vowed to take revenge if the surgeons killed me. It may seem silly but that really made me feel better and more at ease. Thanks buddy I needed that.
One thing to remember about Keenan was that Keenan loved. Keenan loved a great deal of people like his friends and family. If you want to honor Keenan show love to the ones you care about and help them if you can. Seek and allow the love others
show for you and be Thankful. I also have a list of things I know Keenan loved to do that you can also honor and remember him.
Keenan love to watch anime
Keenan loved to spend time with friends
Keenan loved to troll on 4chan
He loved to go hiking and backpacking
He loved to play video games or a game of magic the gathering (we played so much dota 2 and magic together, I think he was recently into rim world a lot but he also liked divinity 2, apex legends
He loved smoking with the homies
He loved esoteric documentaries and books on the occult
Keenan love food, eating food, cooking food and watching other people cook food.
Keenan liked poetry and he loved music.
With great sadness we say goodbye to Keenan Thomas Boyles, our hopes and dreams for him have been extinguished but a little piece of Keenan lives on in each and every one of you who knew him. We are now left missing a friend, brother, son and uncle. My brother was a close confidant and friend one of the few people who knew how I felt about a number of various topics and I will miss his council for the rest of my life. I am proud to call Keenan my brother and Keenan, I will always love you.
Thank you and may God bless you.
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