To my best friend, Potato

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Brandon U. Tatroe AKA Potato
Born Jan. 24, 1995
Death May 7, 2022 (age 27)
Favorite Game: Pathfinder 1e

It’s slightly embarrassing, but my youngest daughter is in almost every single one of my best friend’s wedding photos when he got married to his wife.

They have always said it was fine, and right now it sets a precedent as to how deeply engrained you were to our family and how much you meant to the entire community to accept each of us for who we are

I met Potato (legally known as Brandon Tatroe) when I went back to a regular job to help support my new and growing family. Even at 10 years younger than myself, we bonded over the same nostalgic memories of specific Saturday morning cartoons, odd tastes in music and a mutual distaste for what we were doing to earn a living – but it did provide us with 40 hours a week to talk, bond, and form a friendship that while too short did last a life time.
One thing I noticed about Potato right away besides his quirky humor and general awkwardness to certain situations was his uncanny ability to explain a 30 minute episode of Rick and Morty in an ungodly four hours. And if you’ve listened to our ETG Audio show, you know he can start to drone on and get lost in his words and thoughts. He even gave me a 20 minute story just to ask for a ride home one day, and while I had usually picked on him for such lengths of stories prior to short and simple questions, I must now now fondly remember these and cherish them as additional conversations and time spent together.

We lost Potato the night before Mothers Day of 2022; a car accident in his home town of Sparta, Michigan just after 7pm. His wife and two young children were in the car with him, his youngest daughter barely a month old was spared major injuries while his 3 year old son sustained a broken leg and wife a broken pelvis and cut on her spleen. While they are expected to make a full recovery from their physical injuries, the mental anguish they will experience every day is unbearable to think about. Mothers Day weekend will be a day of sadness and loss for his small and growing family, as well as his mother. The loss will be felt by everyone constantly, but on a day to celebrate those who have given us life, we must also now celebrate the life that was taken too soon.

I remember when the idea for Epic Table Games started, and oddly enough it started with the idea to build a gaming table for our group and it grew from there into what it is today. Obviously there is no gaming table or at least yet, but Potato has always been the other half of this project if he knew it or not. And I can say that because I didn’t tell him until he was already participating so heavily in our content creation though the audio show and our blog.

In fact when we first met, he hadn’t had an opportunity to sit down at a table to actually play the game he came to love so deeply. I brought him in to the fold, and the love he had for immersive stories and highly imaginative solutions with outcomes only decided by the random rolls of dice had captured his desire to create worlds and be a part of something fantastical. His love table top role playing games was still new, but wickedly intense.

Potato was a special type of person – the kind who always had you in his thoughts, and could help you feel comfortable being goofy. He always knew how to put a smile on anyone’s face nearly immediately after meeting them, and he did it with such ease. When I told him of our shared successes he played down his role in making them happen, and while I wouldn’t let him do that then I won’t let him do it now.

Potato was a perfect brother, son, husband, father, friend, and individual taken from us too soon. Take this time to see your friends, love your family, and enjoy the things that make you happy. You will always be missed my friend, and the tears that stain our faces may dry, and the weight of loss may ease from our shoulders, your absence will never be unnoticed.