Daniel Di Natale was 16 when met his friend Peter Schank while working at a Buffalo toy store. Schank, then 12, used to hang around the shop.

Their bond strengthened over the years when they both joined a Buffalo chapter of the Freemasons fraternal order. But when Schank joined the Army and returned from his third deployment in Afghanistan, he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. At the age of 30, he took his own life.

At the funeral service, Di Natale said Schank was called a "warrior poet."

"He was the only person I've ever met that could quote 16th century English poetry," Di Natale, 40, said of his late friend. "And then, you know, you [could] talk to him about football."

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