No Artificial Scents Please

The world lost an awesome man. I’m incredibly sad at the passing of my friend Derek K. Miller on Tuesday, May 3, 2011 due to complications from colorectal cancer at the far too young age of 41. I wonder if anyone else has thought that this means he will never make it to his Life, the Universe and Everything birthday. Sigh. In true Derek form, his last post announced his death to the world on Wednesday morning. It’s amazing how his post spread across the Internet like it did. It received coverage not only by those who knew him, but by those all over the world who heard about him. I’m glad that others got to know him even though it was through his death.

Derek was such a kind and intelligent human being, a gifted writer and he will be greatly missed. I felt I had to write something; if only to get the thoughts out of my head. And of course, I will only use one space after a period since reading Derek’s post on the topic earlier this year. I’m not really a blogger as it’s been over 2 years since I wrote anything on this site; I prefer tweeting to blogging.

I met Derek in 2008 and got to know him and later his wife, Airdrie, over the past few years. Since he was diagnosed with cancer in 2007, I didn’t know him before cancer so I knew he may leave us too soon but always hoped he would defy the odds. I feel fortunate that we got to share some good times together over the past few years. Derek and Air were an amazing couple and their love for each other could be seen; they taught me what true love looks like. My heart is breaking for his parents, Air and their daughters as they go through this horribly difficult time.

I love the last paragraph of his post (even though it makes me cry):

Airdrie, you were my best friend and my closest connection. I don’t know what we’d have been like without each other, but I think the world would be a poorer place. I loved you deeply, I loved you, I loved you, I loved you.

My Twitter stream, Flickr and Facebook aren’t quite the same since Derek left us. He was meticulous at tagging photos on Flickr and not just his own; I liked that about him. He will never make another comment on anyone’s tweets, photos or status updates. This is my first experience with the death of a Facebook friend.

Here’s a photo of Airdrie + Derek that I took last year:

I love this photo of Derek with their dog, Lucy:

I remember when they were looking into getting a dog and Derek feared the dog would outlive him; so sad that’s the way it turned out. Derek was admired by so many people when he was alive and his death has introduced him to so many more. I’m happy that I knew him and I will miss him. Air, I’m here for you.

Oh ya, fuck cancer.

♡ #weLOVEderek ♡ #weLOVEairdrie ♡