Loss of a Friend…

This is a hard post to write, but it’s what’s going on in my life and I wanted to start documenting more which is why I started my lil blog.

Ben and I were getting ready this morning. I always watch the news in the morning as we were watching it I see a story about a shooting in Spokane last Friday where a suspect was shot by police because he was shooting at them. I had heard about this story last week but didn’t really think of it. We live in a pretty safe city but this was a bad part of town. The news then says the suspect has been identified and flashes a picture of him. As I look at the TV screen, I yell to Ben that’s Ethan?!!! What the hell?! Ethan….

The summer before I turned 19 I moved into a house with my older brother Eddie, and my two best friends Becca and Keith. Keith and I had a kind of crazy relationship he was my best friend but he also had feelings for me that I didn’t have for him. He moved out and Eddie said Ethan needs a place to stay. We’d known Ethan for quite awhile, he was quite and a good friend and person. Becca dated him for a bit but it never worked out. So he moved into Keith’s old room. Becca then went on the never ending trip to CA and it was just me, Eddie and Ethan living together. We all got along great, we were young and had parties just doing young kids stuff. Later Ethan moved out and Ben moved in. We all still kept in touch with him, he’d crash on our couch sometimes. He was constantly hurting himself, the boys would go skateboarding and Ethan would always be the one to get hurt. He had angel wings tattooed on his back and got the back of his neck pierced! A few years later we lost contact with him, we had heard he moved to CA then to MT, had a child and was doing great!

Last week we had our friend Joey over for dinner, we talked about Ethan. Joey said he was back in town and that he had seen him just a few weeks ago. He seemed great. We’ve always known that Ethan suffered from mental health issues but I would have never in a million years thought it come to this. It’s hard to see the news paint him as some crazed person. I know what he did was wrong, but he wasn’t this monster they have portrayed him to be.

My heart goes out to his family and friends. Ethan you will always be remembered for all the fun and good memories we have together. I hope you can finally find peace.