Thank you mffan, we kept in touch via phone calls almost to the end. For the last few months, his wife would use a speakerphone and I would retell old stories of the dumb things that we got up to in these years of idiocy. She said that those weekly calls were among the very few things that would get a smile and even a rare laugh from him this last stage. Getting into the last phase of our lives means this sort of event must become a more sadly frequent part of life... we moved physically far apart in our 30s which meant our friendship underwent a subtle shift, but you only get one first best friend.