This is my favorite picture of Todd because it takes me back in time to the days he was a guitarist in a heavy metal band and we hung out together. I was so proud of him and loved telling everyone how MY brother was a lead guitarist in a band. I'd hang out at his band practices and he'd let me sing Pat Benetar songs on the microphone. He'd make fun of my singing skills or rather, my lack of them, but I didn't care...I was hanging out with my big brother. I felt like I was a part of him, not just his little sister but a friend. We had so many good times during this period of our lives. Alcohol was just getting its hooks in him and was allowing him to come out of his quiet, withdrawn shell of introversion. I think subconsciously I knew where it would lead us years down the road because I could sense him changing...drifting slowly away from me. It was shortly after this time that I began clinging to him and he began pushing me away. Soon alcohol had such a grip on him he would systematically push everyone who loved him out of his life, one by one. I literally begged him to let me back in, but it was to no avail. For reasons still unknown to me, near the end he let me back into what his life had become after alcoholism had "given him the world then stripped it all away." Although I am grateful for the last two years I shared with him as best friends, those last years never did feel as carefree and pure as our time together in the middle 1980's. It was truly a magical time...a time I know neither of us have ever forgotten, for we talked of it often.