It's a mystery how Blake came across a stack of those CARE4DATA Sapphire bootleg games, but this is how I came to know him. I met him on the Racketboy forum in 2011. He sent me several of those Sapphire boots, and I distributed them to my friends local to the Phoenix, AZ area. We got to know each other through PM. Aside from our obvious shared interest in retro Japanese video games, he and I had very much in common. We were both Christian, in our 30's, had lived in Japan, both married to Japanese girls, and both of us had very young and adorable daughters (his is 2 and mine is 4). Blake and I were once talking about earthquakes in Japan via e-mail, and he said, "If the worst happens and I die, well... I believe in Jesus. I'm not worried about dying at all." So, I don't grieve for Blake. I grieve for his precious daughter. He told me of his custody battle for her, and his wife's violent, explosive behavior. I shouldn't go into much detail on here, but from what he told me, I am certain she is an unfit mother who will now have full custody of that beautiful girl. To me, this makes me cry more than the death of my friend. I can't imagine my own wife mentally snapping like that. If she did, I doubt I could handle it with the strength that he did. Blake carried a great pain in his heart this whole time, and by the grace of God he was able to keep going, despite so much heartache. I hope that as his daughter grows older, she will not forget her father, nor how much he loved her. I will miss him.
