John Bateman

My best friend died in 1995. It's hard to believe that was 10 years ago. I was in the Navy and I didn't even know about his death until 6 months after it happened. I was overseas and when I got back I the first person I called was John. I called his house and his mom answered and she said, "John's dead."

He was such a cool guy. He never had anything bad to say about anyone. He kind of looked up to me, but I suspect he kind of treated everyone that way. He was just a humble fun loving guy. We always had a good time whenever we went out.

Sometimes people might have said John was a little too juvenile, but I appreciated his naive exuberance. He reminded me of everything that was cool about life. John was my best friend. I miss him.

I remember the last time I saw him. He came over just before I went off to Navy boot camp. I was worried about what I was about to go through. John was the only one of my friends who went out their way to see me off. When I said, "Good Bye" to him that day, I'm thankful that I didn't make any snide or sarcastic remarks as he was leaving as friends do sometimes. I simply said, "Good bye, John" and watched him as he drove off. I guess he always gave the sense of being a genuine friend, which is pretty rare.

Everyone should have at least one friend like John in their life because I think of something John would have probably said, "your life would certainly suck a lot less."

I love you, John. I know that if you haven't changed, you're doing just fine.