In Memoriam of Benway / Baseway / Dr. Benway / @Frenway:
Benway was such a kind, loving, and warm-hearted soul.
No matter how much he was struggling, he always went out of his way to brighten up your day, tell you that you looked cute today, and try to cheer you up.
Even when we had to call EMS to check on him, I believed that he was going to be fine.
When I got the message that he was dead, I couldn't believe that it wasn't some sick joke.
Benway was so strong and had been through so much, and I couldn't believe that some fucking drugs out of everything were what took him.
I remember that not long after I first met him last year, he sent me thousands of old podcast & radio files and I just thought "This is the coolest fucking dude ever" because of how awesome (and nerdy) of a person you have to be to store old stuff like that on your computer.
Sometimes we would talk about random shit like old music and breadmaking.
Other times we would talk about serious shit, like what we had both gone through as children and how it was affecting us today.
I didn't know Benway as well as many of the people here, but he was one of those people where every time I spoke to him, I thought "This is an incredible human that I wish I knew better."
We had plans for me to come visit him in Oslo one day, and now I have to slowly accept the fact that I will never see Benway's face again or hear his voice or get to meet him.
Benway was a pure, incredible, amazing, angelic human who had been through so much pain and was still fighting to get through every day and make this world a happier place.
As
@affa said, he was a fucking angel.
In his memory, I want the pain from his death to bring us together rather than cause us to withdraw.
I want us to listen to his favourite songs, smoke a blunt while the sun comes up, and play some World of Warcraft together.
We should reach out to people we know who are struggling and getting out of control with their drug use to give them a serious talk about our concerns.
And we should tell the people that we love how much we love and care about them, because in our community you never know when the last time that you talk to somebody will be.
Benway would want us to be making the most of every day and doing as much as we could to make ourselves and each other happy.
Rest in Peace Benway.
