vanderwal.net

It was only four days into 2010 that the reality of life and its frailty surface to take the air out of my breath. It was the death of Brad Graham a very early blogger (BradLands) and host to the pre-SXSW warm-up Break Bread with Brad. As the article says, Brad died of natural causes at the age of 41.

Brad was one of those wonderful people who seemed to preternaturally walk up to you and say, "I know you" and with in 15 seconds of first meeting him you knew he was right. Brad was a great host when he was on the road traveling, as I joined in on Break Bread with Brad in San Francisco September 10, 2001 and in June in Washington, DC in June 2002 (he assembled about a dozen DC bloggers for brunch and was a great guest and host). Brad was great with stories that had unexpected twists and humor that would have everybody laughing until they were crying. Brad was not only in love with the theater, but one always had a feeling you were part of his always on comedy production and you were the star. He had those type of wonderful gift, you wish you yourself had and wished everybody you knew had too.

One of the things that has been really amazing is seeing MetaFilter, or more accurately MetaTalk - Remembering our friend Brad to witness an impressive outpouring of sorrow and celebration for the joy each of us shared in our life, which was Brad. This outpouring of moments of silence (indicated with a simple blank line or few and a ".") is not only a testament to Brad, but to the closeness we all felt for Brad that extends from only a few minutes or hour we would see him at SXSWi or when we were in the same town with him, but to the enduring power we have to fill those in between moments with digital intimacy to share a story, an glimpse of life, or in Brad's case most often a laugh.