Thanks for the laughs Mr Perry.

Tweet

I like to say my grandparents raised me, and while they did, tv also did a lot of that "raising." Not really there fault, by the time I moved out of my mother and step-dad's house and into my grandparents, I was a sophmore in high school. They had raised my mother and two uncles decades earlier and they were for lack of better wording were tired by the time I was a high school aged hoodlum. This meant, I got to stay up as late as I wanted and that meant A LOT of television. Most of it late night television. I spent hours of my teenage years, and in the years since with Pheobe, Ross, Rachel, Monica, Joey and of course Chandler. Now like most people my age, I loved the whole cast- but I have always loved Chandler the most. His wit, his sarcasm, the way he used both to deal with stuff. I found a lot of myself in the way he was portrayed. And yes, just like I'm sure millions of other women in there thirties and forties had a crush on him. I mean what was there not to love, he was adorable and funny and the way he followed Monica around. That was something that every girl in there teens wanted. I've watched Friends back to forward, and forward to back over and over throughout the years. I spent months on bed rest when I was pregnant with my daughter, and there was Friends. I am a firm believer that at any time of the day Friends is playing on some channel. I've cried at the episodes, I've laughed at the episodes. As I said before the show was more than a show to me, it was an escape. The six friends became "friends" of mine. An escape from the stupidity of the world around us. Recently I found the first two seasons on DVD and decided that I needed to rewatch the series. Chris has watched it with me. It's even funnier as an adult. When I was teen, they were just these six people who were living in a bright big city. Now as an adult, I see past the funny. I see the real world issues that they were masking with the humour. So you can imagine when I was scrolling Facebook last night, and scrolled across the news that Matthew Perry died. It took a full minute for it to sink in. I even exclaimed out loud and the words that rolled off my toungue apparently alarmed Chris enough for him to look over at me and ask if I was ok. The last twenty four hours have been filled with tributes to the actor who was most famous for playing Chandler Bing on Friends, but also played several other memorable roles in some great movies including his role in Canadian Bacon opposite Chris Farley and his hilarious perfomances in The Whole Nine Yards and The Whole Ten Yards. Like many other comedians he led a very "troubled" life. They say that the ones hurting the most are the funniest. If that's true, MP must of been suffering quite a deal. I like most of the other world that pays attention to social media and the amount of attention we as a country we pay to celebs, know that it's no secret that Matthew struggled for years with drugs and alcohol. He became much more open about it in his memoir. He went to over a dozen rehabs. He opened a sober facility for men after becoming sober the last time. In the last twenty-four hours I have read a lot of words, some he said about himself and some that were said about him. One of the things I read earlier today said that he was proud of his time as an actor, proud of being known as Chandler but he hoped that when he was gone that his work to help other people realize that there is help available to them would be at the top of the list of his accomplishments and that it might surpass him being known as an actor. I read in another article that he never told anyone who asked for help no. That amazed me. That if someone stopped him on the street and said they were in trouble and they wanted out, they wanted to change that he would do whatever he could to help them. Maybe that's why he was such a likeable character on Friends, maybe because even though he was hurting he tried his best to make everyone laugh. I guess that's true about any character that he played. You could tell that he was putting his all into the character he was playing. Maybe it was because just like watching him on Friends was an escape for me from the real world, playing Chandler on Friends was an escape for him from his real world. I saw something earlier today that said they got the coroner's exam back today but the cause of death was deferred until the tox screen comes back. Which I understand is something they do when a "unnatural" death happens. Matthew Perry died in his hottub at his home. That's where he was found. I get that because of his history with drugs and alcohol a tox screen is what "powers at be" think is neccesary. I totally understand that. But I also understand that a fantastic comedian and human being just lost his life, and at the end of the day it doesn't really matter how he died. He's gone, and that's sad. Yeah it could of been suicide. It could of been a mistake. We could sit here and talk about it till we are all blue in the face. Which most of the internet is doing right now. I have seen a lot of people saying that because one of the last things he posted to social media was a picture of three cranberries with a caption along the lines "this is all I've eaten today" was somehow a omen or a nod to the fact that he was going to kill himself. Which yeah, could of been the case. But do we really need to over analyze all the posts the man made. He was in enough pain in life, let him have some peace in death. Thank you for all the laughs Matthew. Thank you for some of my favorite TV, and a couple of my faovrite movies. But above all, thank you for using what you went through to help other people. Thank you for being a Friend. I would say rest in peace, but I know that you are up there making everyone laugh. You will be missed by so many. You were and always will be so loved.