Maddy was part of our little group for 14 years, I can't begin to express how deeply his loss is felt. Maddy is, and always will be one of my very favorite people of all time, for so many reasons. First I think was his optimism, maybe not about world politics, but deeper than that he had an almost foolish belief in a good outcome, despite all evidence against it. When we were very little that was hanging onto the hope for a snow day until the moment the morning bell rang. As we grew into our teens it was the decision to spend three thousand dollars on a "Desktop replacement laptop" having read the god awful reviews, and still loving the damned thing even though it weighed 15 pounds, required monthly maintenance, and was only ever single degrees from melting itself. Into adulthood, it was eating ice-cream, and drinking canned coffee with milk claiming "I *was* lactose intolerant, but I swear I'm building an immunity" moments before spending many toilet bound minutes paying for that choice. Though, honestly, that may have just been a prank. Chrises basement is not a large place, and he was far from the only one paying for those milky delights. Whatever his reasoning, I love him for it.
Second, Maddy was unbearably, constantly hilarious. His mustache may have become a true part of his fashion eventually, but for years it was literally just an excuse to carry a novelty mustache comb, and to use that comb to brush his then very thin tendrils of facial hair into horrifying perfection; the more upset the onlooker, the more swipes of the comb he applied. This is, just one of many, unethically funny things the man did on a daily basis. Example B:
I had over a decade of fun with Maddy, and that's probably what I love most about him, but another reason he was such an amazing guy is that he was a really, sincerely, good guy. His strong stances on social justice are well known, but most precious to me was his ability to make people feel welcome, and safe; he just had that effect on people.
For all the memories I've mentioned here, and the countless others I could fill a book with, I will always be grateful to him.
P.S. I tried about a thousand different titles and nothing fit, but eventually I settled on part of the funeral rites of the Night's Watch from Game of Thrones, partly because I feel he deserves a hero's remembering, but mostly because I think he would have thought it was funny.