One of the ways I bonded early with my stepson was joining a D&D game he was in. His friend's uncle was the DM and he ran it every Friday evening (but i only played every other Friday because, well, Kim and i were still dating and I'm not an idiot). This went on for around nine years, until David went to San Francisco for college. 

I last saw John at David's wedding in August 2022 and it was nice to catch up with him and the other regulars of the game. 

A month or two ago, he died suddenly (although apparently he taken a turn in March, but refused to do anything about it; we learned during the funeral that he hasn't seen a doctor for his entire adult life). David is going to run a one-shot game in his honor with all the usual suspects. I dug in my box of mementos and found all the old character sheets from those days.