A Tribute To Graham Nation

Death comes for us all. It’s unforgiving. It’s undeniable. Sometimes, it’s unexpected. It’s those moments that leave us asking “why?”

There were a lot of new faces that viewed my Instagram stories on Monday, Feb. 17th. Like a lot.

And I know why.

That morning I commented on a post of a very well-known hairstylist in LA. Just prior, I’d seen something on a mutual friend—Brandon Gonzalez’s—facebook post and ran to Instagram to see if there were unfortunate similarities there as well.

I commented on another comment as more of a statement rather than a question. I think that it led people to think I knew him way better than I did.

So no, I didn’t really know Graham. I was just on the outside looking in at what was a fantastic human. He always had a smile on his face and love in his heart. He loved what he did. He loved the city he called home (LA) and his adoptive city of Denver.

The first time I went to Bar Standard—a place that I ended up frequenting virtually every Sunday in the summers—I was blown away. For a recent transplant from Kansas City to Denver, I’d never been to a place like that before in my life.

June 1st, 2014. 9:06pm.

Picture this: you enter into a back alley, go up five flights of exterior stairs, and you walk onto a dance floor with house music bumping, the purple mountain majesties of the setting Colorado sun behind the Front Range, and the towering skyscrapers of downtown.

Enamored by the paradise I found, I pulled out my phone and took this panoramic video which, if you can see at the end, is Graham smiling to a customer…

I’m not positive, but I think that may have been his last summer in Denver.

Fast forward to 2019, when I was making decent money on a hemp farm in Colorado, I did reach out to Graham for a haircut when he was coming into Denver. He was quick in response, but unfortunately, life got in the way and I wasn’t able to see him.

Regardless of that, he would pop up from time-to-time on my feed as his Instagram following started to skyrocket; it is very apparent of the success he’s had, the people he’s touched, and the light he brought to the world.

This is just another instance of why you need to live your life to the fullest. We say it allll the time, I know. But as we get older, deaths around us seem to accelerate. So buy that plane ticket. Hug someone close. Laugh as much as you can. That’s what Graham would have wanted.

Gone way too soon, as he had much more to give to the world.

Rest in Paradise…

Sincerely,