On October 18th, 2020, I took this photograph and video of the artist Frederick Weston three days before he died. It was Sunday and he was in a jovial mood. We listened to Louis Armstrong sing "Black and Blue." It was the last time I saw him.  

In 2015, Fred and I became fast friends at a Visual AIDS party called No Pants, No Problem. We spent the night talking about Detroit, our shared hometown, and our journeys to the queer nucleus of New York City. Fred was my confidant and pizza-eating companion. I spent hours in his apartment to hear his stories and pour through his archives. 

In June of 2020, Fred told me he had bladder cancer. I picked him up from surgery and got him settled at his apartment. Despite his rapid deterioration, Fred was full of humor and creativity.  Because Fred had survived so much, including having 30 T-Cells when he was diagnosed with HIV (he liked to joke that he named them all), Fred believed that he would also survive cancer. 

I miss him everyday.