Good bye, my dear friend. I'm so deeply pained by your passing; the significance and sorrow is just now hitting me like hurricane, over a month later.

By far, you were the earliest friend I had that lasted into adulthood. The first time we really met in true, not as toddlers at a shared family function, but at beloved Round Lake, I remember clearly.

I was swimming off the dock of my grandparents cottage where I saw you having your own swim. We made acquaintance while treading water with a late afternoon sun dancing across the ripples of the lake. I remember how you looked, bobbing up and down with an energy you would carry for many years. We discovered that we were destined to be friends since our grandparents (who were friends) each had a cottage in swimming distance and our parents/uncles had a long history growing up together in Jackson, Michigan. We would continue that tradition...

Too many adolescent memories together with you. I don't know how I could ever parse through the most impactful.

When we were teenagers we became uniquely great friends. When I was about 16 you decided to pair with my music ambitions. I remember when you first showed up with that beautiful blue Pearl drum kit your dad bought you and we jammed in the basement of my parents house, I was over the moon. Soon after, Brendan Cagney would join us on bass and we had ourselves a makeshift band of friends. It eventually moved to the garage where we would meet after school to play and hangout. Your drumming was never very good haha, but never the less we had some riotous times playing, even a time or two entertaining a party in the dusty woods cabin. You were the first person to ever truly play music with me.

We went snowboarding together, we water skied together, we pontooned together, and we raced trucks around in our prime. You had "white lighting" and I had "blue thunder". We were dangerous in those trucks, hurling down dirt roads in Liberty and Parma, trying to outdo each other. The more I think about these times the more I realize that we were a special combo, and that we grew up in fortunate circumstances that are now foreign to most Americans. And so it goes that we rarely know what we have until it's gone.

You were the funnest guy in the entire town to hang with, and everyone knew it. Your pranks and follies were expected and built into the equation of hanging out. There was never a dull moment. The hardest belly laughs I ever had and ever will have [I'm certain] were with you. When you were in the mix, everyone knew it was going to be a great time and the laughs would be uncontrollable. Your weird lingo and self satiating grin are forever burned into my memories. That grin in of itself would send people over. You were the rarest of breeds.

As life tends, we moved away and grew apart. But I remember in 2017, when I briefly moved back to Jackson. You were there and Tannyn was already a walking, talking impressive young boy. Us three visited my dad in Charlevoix, where we walked the beach and collected stones. I remember feeling like you were lucky to have such a great little guy in your life and that he sort of reminded me of how I was when I was his age. Observant and sensitive.

A couple years later, right after you got 'out' the second time, we were driving around Ann Arbor when you asked me to be Tannyn's "godfather", and I remember being livid about it. It was so clear to me by the way you asked, that you suspected you wouldn't be around very long, and I told you so, and angrily swatted it away. It was that very same day that we fell out in a big way over seemingly nothing, and I'll forever regret that this was the last time I would ever speak to you. I am ripped up knowing that this is how our story ended and that I'll have to live with it forever. I should have been more supportive of your transition and receptive of the fact that you were doing what you were able to ensure your boy had allies if something were to happen. I'm not in touch with him nor your family these days, and you may have asked someone else after that day, but never the less I promise to reach out and to provide something in the way of support for Tannyn, whatever form that may take, I'll do what I am able. I really am sorry, Tyler. We never were concretely 'best' friends, but what you said to me that day made me realize (in time) that you considered me a uniquely reliable friend, even family, and I consider you the same. I hope and pray to see you on the other side.

Missing you a great deal in this moment...

"Dan"

Tim,Jill and Chad

My heart hurts for you.❤️

Mary(MacCready)Kennedy

Tim, Jill, & Chad , We grieve for you,  and with  you. Prayers for your peace & comfort. 

Rick & Mary

I just found this out , I am  so sorry  it breaks my heart .  My grandson and I would visit him at his house on Cherokee.  He was doing so good. being the manager at Little Caesars.  Cody will be broken hearted 💔