This past weekend my hometown of Binghamton, New York, lost a legend. Vincent Holmes was only 37, but had touched an incredible number of lives in his time, including mine. Vinny was a few years older than I was, one of the cool older guys who showed me adulthood when I had known little previously. Yeah, he probably made a few bad choices over the years, but we all did, and that was part of growing up.

I never met anyone who made friends as easily as Vinny. Quite simply, you wanted to be his friend. That can’t be taught. It’s trite to say, but Vinny really care what color you were, or whether you were a millionaire or a bum. He would be your friend just the same. And that meant that you became friends with millionaires and bums too, because Vinny rolled with them both.

I’m sorry we didn’t get to hang out as much in recent years, Vinny. Funny because it wasn’t that long ago we hung out every weekend. Different times. Different times. But some day, I promise, we’ll hang out again.

Peace.