Somebody once told me

I first met Jackie when we were in the 6th grade. He confessed he liked me with a big bag of candy made up of 25 cent candy pieces from our middle school cafeteria. He belonged in the class across the hall from mine, but I had never really spoken to him.

I took the candy he gave me anyways.

It wasn’t the start of a childhood romance. I thought Jackie was a loser with his hair parted in the middle, circle-framed glasses, and his scrawny arms and legs in his favourite outfit combination of an orange T-shirt with orange shorts. But for some reason the thought did linger inside my mind: I think we’re going to become really good friends.

Since that encounter, Jackie has given me many things. He gave me free bubble tea when he got his first part-time job at a bubble tea shop called Jumbo, which I originally thought was a non-profit organization saving elephant tusks. He gave me my first watch during the Christmas of my first year of business school in university.  He gave me a big bag of snacks and a hug I didn’t really want but needed when he came to my house after my ex-boyfriend broke my heart. He gave me and my coworkers a box of donuts when he visited my office after my attempted suicide.

He gave me many rides home when I was too drunk, and just a lot of rides in general. Jackie drove me to dinners and lunches and breakfasts and desserts, beaches and lakes, mountains and islands, airports, and nowhere “just for fun”. We liked to belt out the lyrics to “All Star” by Smashmouth in his always dirty Prius.

In our friends group, Jackie was the first to do many things. He was the first to get his license, a girlfriend, and a full-time job. He was the first to move out of our little slice of the neighbourhood and now he is the first to move on from this world.

In the last 8 months, Jackie’s battle with cancer has been the most amazing thing I’ve seen anybody do. He survived two major surgeries that removed his entire right lung as well his ability to walk. In the 14 years that I’ve known him, I had never seen him cry until our late-night hospital visit on April 15, 2018, where he laid in his hospital bed and told us that there weren’t any more treatment options that would be effective. The 4 of us cried together.

Jackie has given me all the things a best friend can give for more than half of my life. I’m sure he has done the same for many others. This is shown in all the people who care and visit him throughout his battle. If you know Jackie, you’d know that he cares so much for his friends. He goes above and beyond and pushes through minor and major inconveniences to get to us.

I don’t believe in a god but I must have been blessed by something or someone to have had the pleasure of growing up with you. Thank you so much. We love you.

Sincerely, Loewe