I’m devastated writing this. On December 24, Brian K. Millard suffered a hemorrhagic stroke in his brainstem. He was rushed to the hospital where he was placed on life support and fell into a coma. Earlier this evening he was taken off the ventilator and passed shortly after. His mom and I were with him at the end.
I’ve lived with Brian for the last six years, but he was far more than a roommate. He’s been my creative partner and one of my dearest friends in the world. He was generous, fiercely loyal, stubborn as hell, a lover of great movies and terrible movies alike, and never lacking for a quip. God, was he funny. I will miss our mutual love of statistics and spreadsheets and our fascination with bizarre trivia. I will miss our endless support of each others’ favorite teams (except when facing one another, of course). I will miss darts (which he always won) and foosball (which I always won) and Madden (typically an even split). I will miss our countless hours of movie watching… and the countless additional hours discussing and dissecting said films. And I will miss writing with him, crafting stories and characters and those joyous moments when a problematic scene finally clicks.
Thank you for your humor and guidance and for always being there. To paraphrase Quint, farewell and adieu to you, my friend. (Yes, Brian, of course you get a point for that.)