The Empty Chair

From the Knights of the Dinner Table, reproduced here without permission but I do hope they would understand, as a memory of Joe:

The Empty Chair

Eulogy for a Gamer

There is an empty chair,
at the table this day.
A hallowed place where,
a friend once played.

The roll of his dice,
my ears long to hear.
Or perhaps it would suffice,
if he should suddenly appear.

With character sheet in hand,
and a bag of Cheeze-doodles to share.
All his friends would stand,
as he sat in the empty chair.

I hear his voice a-callin’,
and it ties my heart in a knot.
For he cries, “Though a comrade has fallen,
You must play for those who cannot.”

We conquered worlds on the run,
he and I in the name of fun.
And as others may come and go,
I make both both friend and foe.

But what I long for most,
is our past now long a ghost.

Joe was out for dinner with some other friends on Saturday, but didn't feel to well. He went home feeling lousy.

Sunday morning, he must have felt a lot worse because he went to the Kemptville Hospital. They wasted no time in rushing him to the Queensway Carleton. His lungs were filling up with fluid and his vitals were weakening fast.

They asked him Sunday night if he wanted to call anyone, presumably given his dire state. Being Joe, he didn't want to inconvenience anyone.

Monday, in the wee hours, he left us.

Whatever it was hit that fast, wasn't stoppable by the doctors and medical staff at the hospital, and claimed his life much too erly.

Tonight, we sat around a table and toasted Joe with a good bottle of port. We talked about what playing with him was like and what we'd miss (and a couple of minor things we wouldn't). We had a Senators cap signed by Daniel Alfredson standing in for Joe (he was a season ticket holder at the Scotia Bank Place).

Then we played the Dungeons and Dragons game he had played with us so far. We moved through the penultimate adventure and kept his character involved. The Gamemaster has a plan for the character, should he survive until the end - a good ending to his story, something Joe never got a chance to write.

It wasn't the same. Joe brought something to our game that is now missing. But it isn't just missing in the game, it is missing in all of us to one extent or another.

Peace, Brother Joseph. And Peace to your family.