From organizing the bachelor party to coordinating the wedding arrangements and serving as a point of contact between the groom and his bride, the best man plays a crucial role. A man named Brayden, who was supposed to be the best man at his friend’s wedding, delivered his speech even thought he passed away before the big day. The video of Brayden’s speech was recently posted by u/copitamenstrual in the r/MadeMeCry group.
Representative Image Source: Getty Images | Sol Stock
The poem recited by Brayden left all the guests emotional and reduced the groom to tears. The couple in question were Zane and Eliza Galway from Shellharbour, New South Wales, who got married in April 2024 in the NSW South Coast. Brayden signed up for the speech as “Your Best Man from Above.” According to Bristol Live. The tender moment when Zane received Brayden’s special poem, was captured by their wedding photographer Mitch Hickman, who posted it on his Instagram account, from where it started making rounds on the internet.
Representative Image Source: Getty Images | FG Trade
Mitch revealed on the Instagram post that this poem was specially crafted by Brayden’s mom who wanted to make sure that her son was still a part of Zane’s wedding. The message was delivered in the best man's voice through the use of AI. As Zane and Eliza sat there, with a wood-paneled backdrop, hand in hand, Brayden’s speech resonated through the wedding hall, “Hey mate, Brayden here. Just thought I would send a few words for your big day. I was to stand beside you as your best man and take the p*** as I only can,” Brayden’s AI voice said.
The best man continued reciting his poem, “We met at St John’s like our mums in 82, our mums became friends and luckily we did too. I was the brains, you were a bit slow, you repeated kindy three years in a row. We both played footy, some said it was dumb, me a Canary, you for red scum.” As the atmosphere became warmer with nostalgia, Brayden’s speech continued, “Then we got older and stayed great mates, we went down the Van and you got people thrown out the gates. We would get on the drink and bare our cute bums, and then all of a sudden there’d be nudie runs.”
The speech included more moments that the two best friends had spent together. “We’d run as fast as we could, trying not to hurl. People saw our bits and thought you were a girl. Enjoy this moment, it’s your big day, a surprise to us all, we thought you were gay.” Concluding the heartfelt speech, Brayden’s AI voice said, “And Eliza for you, please touch his hair ‘cause look at his dad, there’s not much there. I know you can’t see me, hope you’re feeling my love. Enjoy your night, your best man from above.” According to Bristol Live, Brayden passed away suddenly due to Meningococcal B.
On Reddit, the tearjerker clip has received 7,000 upvotes. People said that the phrase “your best man from above” in Brayden’s speech hit hard. Others are reflecting on how Brayden’s AI speech reflected what “true friendship” means. u/unclewombie commented, “I would have been a mess hearing that.” u/brownmundey, who seemed to be deeply impacted by the speech, said, “Losing friendships while you grow is the worst feeling. Called my best friends after watching this.”
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Will your current friends still be with you after seven years?
Professor shares how many years a friendship must last before it'll become lifelong
Think of your best friend. How long have you known them? Growing up, children make friends and say they’ll be best friends forever. That’s where “BFF” came from, for crying out loud. But is the concept of the lifelong friend real? If so, how many years of friendship will have to bloom before a friendship goes the distance? Well, a Dutch study may have the answer to that last question.
Sociologist Gerald Mollenhorst and his team in the Netherlands did extensive research on friendships and made some interesting findings in his surveys and studies. Mollenhorst found that over half of your friendships will “shed” within seven years. However, the relationships that go past the seven-year mark tend to last. This led to the prevailing theory that most friendships lasting more than seven years would endure throughout a person’s lifetime.
In Mollenhorst’s findings, lifelong friendships seem to come down to one thing: reciprocal effort. The primary reason so many friendships form and fade within seven-year cycles has much to do with a person’s ages and life stages. A lot of people lose touch with elementary and high school friends because so many leave home to attend college. Work friends change when someone gets promoted or finds a better job in a different state. Some friends get married and have children, reducing one-on-one time together, and thus a friendship fades. It’s easy to lose friends, but naturally harder to keep them when you’re no longer in proximity.
Some people on Reddit even wonder if lifelong friendships are actually real or just a romanticized thought nowadays. However, older commenters showed that lifelong friendship is still possible:
“I met my friend on the first day of kindergarten. Maybe not the very first day, but within the first week. We were texting each other stupid memes just yesterday. This year we’ll both celebrate our 58th birthdays.”
“My oldest friend and I met when she was just 5 and I was 9. Next-door neighbors. We're now both over 60 and still talk weekly and visit at least twice a year.”
“I’m 55. I’ve just spent a weekend with friends I met 24 and 32 years ago respectively. I’m also still in touch with my penpal in the States. I was 15 when we started writing to each other.”
“My friends (3 of them) go back to my college days in my 20’s that I still talk to a minimum of once a week. I'm in my early 60s now.”
“We ebb and flow. Sometimes many years will pass as we go through different things and phases. Nobody gets buttsore if we aren’t in touch all the time. In our 50s we don’t try and argue or be petty like we did before. But I love them. I don’t need a weekly lunch to know that. I could make a call right now if I needed something. Same with them.”
Maintaining a friendship for life is never guaranteed, but there are ways, psychotherapists say, that can make a friendship last. It’s not easy, but for a friendship to last, both participants need to make room for patience and place greater weight on their similarities than on the differences that may develop over time. Along with that, it’s helpful to be tolerant of large distances and gaps of time between visits, too. It’s not easy, and it requires both people involved to be equally invested to keep the friendship alive and from becoming stagnant.
As tough as it sounds, it is still possible. You may be a fortunate person who can name several friends you’ve kept for over seven years or over seventy years. But if you’re not, every new friendship you make has the same chance and potential of being lifelong.