I met Alex when he started dating one of my best girl friends that he eventually married, Dale.  Dale and I have been friends for over 20 years.  Shes mad at me now STILL because Alex and I hit it off right off the bat and became really great friends which made her feel left out.  I thought Alex was the coolest as we became good friends we loved playing darts together, pool volleyball at Dale and Alexs house with the two of them and myself and my wife Tanya.  We worked on projects together and vehicles.  One of my favorite memories of Alex is when Dale and Alexs house had some major plumbing issues take place, the main line to the bathrooms of their rental house was broken somewhere and causing havoc in thier bathroom facilities so Alex being his usual self volunteered to find the break in the line himself and fix it which is where I then entered the picture.  Alex and I dug out under their home trying to locate the break in the line which was pretty far down like three feet down below the foundation of the house then three feet in once we were down far enough.  Alex is a big guy like 6'1 and the space where we located the break was quite small so me being the smaller of the two of us ( in regards to height and basically everything else from what Dale has overly shared with us all and from what I was sadly witness to in our pool volleyball tournaments that sometimes when drinking got a bit much ended up becoming naked volleyball tournaments that Dale came up with the idea to play strategically placing us boys at the shallow end of the pool for her and my wifes entertainment purposes if ya catch my drift) anyway I get to be the guy who goes into the dark hole under the house that we dug out to locate the broken pipe well I went all in as me and Alex always did on whatever we were doing and pretty quickly after getting down and dirty in this hole that has the potential at any moment to cave in as Alex is up above snaking the pipe while I am seeing how bad the break may be in the line you hear a sudden OH FUCK BRIAN GET OUTTA THERE QUICK which I somehow was able to hear and react upon with a quickness which was a good moment for me cause whatever Alex did he caused a bigger break in the line and simultaneously unplugged years worth of waste from every resident of this rental house including Alex and his wife and kids and if anyone knows alex and what his bathroom habits where like there was no time to fuck around I needed to move and move quick and I can say I did so quite quickly just as a tidal wave of years of Alexs backupped shit and god only knows who elses came shooting down into that hole we dug right where I had been working on the pipes I thankfully made it out unscathed and Alex and I after getting over the initial shock of what I just luckily was able to avoid had a huge laugh and a bunch of beer for the rest of the afternoon and what was best about this memory was how proud Alex was of how quickly I was able to get the hell out of that hole as his shit was about to drown me it was always a great story and memory to hear him or I share I sure miss that big bastard as much as Dale and the kids do.  Rest in Peace Brother 

On September 25, 2015 in a hospital in Scottsdale, Az.  I was told that my Alex would never be coming home with me again. There was nothing else to be done the injuries he sustained in a motor vehicle accident he was in three days before where to severe to come back from.  I had the doctors take out all the ventilators and tubes that had been keeping him alive those horrible three days and I climbed into bed with him one last time and put his arms around me and laid on his chest as I had done a million times and I cried like I have never cried before, I couldn't lay there long so I got out of bed and kissed his lips one last time and touched his broken face and I walked out of the room and never looked back.  His family spent his last moments with him, the moment that he took his last breath, a moment I could not and still cannot fathom doing myself.  The best man I had ever met, a great father, the sweetest, most talented ,hardest working man that I was lucky enough to love, and be loved by and call my own for such a short time (8 years total/ five married) was gone.  A piece of me and our children left with Alex that day.  It is a struggle to go on since he has been gone and the kids and I operate like robots to get through each day.  Everyone else who loved him seems to be dealing with his loss so much better than we have yet to do, feels like our ives will never be good again now that he is gone.  I hate September 25th that is my moms birthday and I had lost her just two years before Alex this awful day for me and the kids is the day we will never forget the day we lost our everything.