5 Years ago

I can't believe its already been 5 years since I said farewell to a dear friend, Aaron Marrs. Aaron was an incredibly passionate person. I can remember instantly loving the guy when my first band came to Nashville to record in January of 2003, and we used Aaron's bedroom as our studio. Who would have known he would be departing this Earth just two short years later.
In September of that year we were back in Nashville for a show and we stayed at Aarons again for a few days. During that stay we became a great friends, no suprise, Aaron was a great friend to everyone that knew him. I stayed in his room with him, and we stayed up every night talking. I remember my brother coming upstairs to wake us up one morning and he informed us that Johnny Cash had died. I look back on that and think how odd it is to talk about death with someone who would soon understand what the amazing experience of crossing from this Earth into Heaven is like. It was also during that stay that he read me some of the book that he was reading about the dangerous job of being an Alaskan crab fisher. He was so fascinated about the idea of going there and seeing it for himself.
Some time went by, and Aaron made a couple trips out to California for various reasons, and came to stay with me in Bakersfield. One time while he was there I picked him up in LA and we made a brief spontaneous trip into Mexico, but that is a whole other story. It was during that trip that Aaron told me of his plans to go to Alaska and make a documentary about crab fishing. I actually almost joined in myself. I had nothing else really going on at the time, and thought it sounded exciting.
He went and loved it. He returned home for a short time, but saw an oppourtunity to pay off some debt that had accumulated from filming by returning and working as a crewman on a boat named The Big Valley. I remember talking to him right before he left, and we talked about me coming to visit him when he got back. That was our last conversation. Aaron's boat went down weeks later in the bering sea and he was never found.
During his short 27 years on this Earth he affected many peoples lives. In fact, Aaron and I had never grown beards before and we started our first beards together. Haha! As funny as it is I still think of him when my beard gets really bushy.
He is greatly missed by many, but we all look forward to seeing him again when we leave this Earth.

Love you man, Hold Fast.