It is with my deepest sorrow, my love has passed away. I am holding a charity benefit in his honour today 4pm SLT at his favorite place in Second Life, Winterland. Proceeds will go to Wounded Warriors Canada Please join.

https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Adagio Breeze/167/98/1202″ rel=”noreferrer nofollow”>maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Adagio%20Breeze/167/98/1202

Thank you to Adonis for helping set it up and Jed Luckless for song.

Dave was a veteran who spent time with the Canadian peacekeeping force in Bosnia which left him with inner demons on and off for the rest of his life. Sadly, he never really got the help he needed. He did praise dojo for helping draw him out of a dark place and giving him new zest for life. As a soldier and as a vet trying to live in Toronto with no support to help him deal with PTSD, Dave was struggling to cope and was losing his battle. Dave came to Jill Nielsen – Sensei Emeritus, K-W Ki Aikido Club shortly after he moved to Kitchener. He had read a novel which had a character who was a practitioner of aikido and he thought the philosophy and training sounded like a good choice for him to pursue more peace with his past.

Jill shared this with me:
Here’s a memory from one of my senior students who is now teaching aikido for our club: Fraser here, I remember how Dave took great joy in getting thrown by Jill. He would run at Jill and she would redirect him effortlessly. It was quite a sight to see a six foot something ex-soldier hurtling towards petite Jill only to sail through the air and come up grinning. Dave also joined my Toastmasters club and I recall a very powerful speech he gave about self defense that involved a concealed knife and a large roast of beef sliced to ribbons in a moment. That is a lesson that will stick with me. Dave was fiercely loyal to his friends and I can think of no person I would rather have at my back in a tense situation. Dave, you will be missed.

I personally met Dave about five years ago in a virtual world. I was building virtual homes and as I was working on one, along came a Canadian fella, we hit it off and became best of friends through skype, calls, and texts. Daily calls, nightly calls, all day long texting, we became very, very close.

He was a pretty good singer and hosted our virtual karaoke, he loved nature and yearly sent me a photo journal of the geese that nested near his work, and subsequently the goslings until they flew away. He was fascinated with American politics and probably knew more about it than most Americans. He was a writer, in our time he finished his novel and sent it to me. I loved every word. He was the most intelligent person I had ever met.

I truly miss this great man.