Christopher Jackson's father and step-mother took him off life support last night.

I didn't know Chris well... or for long, depending on how you measure. I met him, officially, in a game. City of Heroes. He was good, "real life" friends with some of my friends and was thus allowed into our very small circle. For the first few years, because I've been playing CoH with Chris for more than 4 years now, I mostly saw him in passing. But even though Mel always had to tell me "this is Chris" when she invited people to our team because I didn't know his toons by name - he was always there for me. Really, that's just the way I see it.

If I decided I wanted some obscure badge or to do some string of missions that took multiple people and we couldn't gather enough, the first person we'd call was Chris. Literally. Mel would pick up the phone and call this poor guy and he would almost always drop whatever he was doing and load up a video game on his computer to help us.

Almost a year ago, I started seriously contemplating moving cross country to be closer to Mel. Chris was also trying to get a job in that area. Because of this and a few other almost reasons she came up with, Mel decided she was going to hook us up. Since we'd never met in person, this was pretty funny to us. We started referring to each other as "betrothed" when we talked... which became more often once we had this common bond. I sat on the game and did nothing but talk to Chris a few times.

This Spring I went to visit Mel for two weeks and Chris actually flew out for a weekend just to meet me. I really couldn't wrap my brain around spending that money, but I was excited about it. I actually got sick that weekend, and wasn't the best company - especially not for anyone claiming to be my "betrothed". I think I'm going to regret all the things that went wrong that weekend for quite some time, and how we couldn't make the best of it and really get to know each other. Yet I've heard nothing but good things he's said about me and the visit. That's just the kind of guy he was.

It's just so sad. He was only 35.

I was going to post this last night... but quite frankly, I feel a bit like a poser so I had to fight with myself over it. I hate when people who have no right to a memory claim to be closer than they were to those who died so as to be a part of it. In the end, I think it's important to honor the memory, regardless of how close one might or might not have been.

So, yeah, I didn't know him well, but... yeah. *undergrounduno, my best friend, has been very close to Chris for 14 years. She's the one who is really truly suffering now. Please keep that in mind.

Goodbye, betrothed.