And there was the horrific attack that Brodman survived but many others didn't. A man killed 49 people and injured 53 at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando on June 12. Brodman was smoking a cigarette on the patio when he heard the thud of gunfire. He and some others broke a fence and sprinted to safety.

AD

“We were out there when the shots started to be fired,” he told CBS affiliate WKMG after the shooting. “I said, 'Run. Just run, run, run.' And we all just ran out the bar.”

AD

But exactly three months after the nightclub shooting, Brodman died unexpectedly.

His death, at the age of 34, was a mystery until an autopsy showed a genetic defect he'd had his entire life — malformed blood vessels that caused a brain hemorrhage.

The blood vessels spontaneously burst, a quick, instantaneous death no one saw coming — not even Brodman.

“All the tragedy, all the times he could have died and it was all going to end at this point and that time regardless,” said Keith Walters, Brodman's best friend since high school. “I would have never expected this to happen to him, and I don't think he did, either.”

AD

Brodman's friends remembered a man with an outgoing, effervescent personality. But occasionally, glimpses of his difficult life would slip through.

“You wanted to be near him,” Walters said. “I would say everyone who ever met him was his best friend. He's the kind of person who went into a room and lit it up. It didn’t matter who you were, you were going to be his friend.”

AD

Maldonaldo remembered a man who watched endless soap operas and would randomly quote his favorite movie, “Steel Magnolias.”

But in private, friends said, Brodman would retreat into himself.

Sometimes, he showed glimpses of his inner thoughts.

“Inside, he was a damaged, hurt person,” Walters said. He was used to having to be in a position where he didn’t want people to feel sorry for him. He was used to being disappointed.

AD

Brodman and his sisters were adopted as children, something only a tight inner circle knew. His adoptive mother died when he was 17, and her death strained his relationship with his father, who Maldonaldo said was never really involved in Brodman's adult life.

But Brodman resisted the urge to be cynical. Instead he made friends wherever he went — outside clubs on cigarette breaks, with doctors and nurses at treatment facilities, and with the people he met on cruises traveling with Maldonaldo.

AD

Nearly dying at Pulse showcased the sullen side and the gregarious side, friends said. He continued to party on the weekends, Walters said, but sometimes struggled to talk about Pulse.

AD

Walters worried that his best friend wasn't doing all he could to deal with the trauma.

All the while, neither man knew of the time bomb in Brodman's head.

On Sept. 12, he was in Tampa for a birthday party, according to the Orlando Sentinel. The party at a mansion on a lake was catered, with photographers and an open bar.

Brodman had gone outside for a cigarette. Friends found him lying on the ground, dead. There were no signs of trauma.

Friends were shocked about the cause of death.

Maldonaldo learned about the cause of death while on a cruise he was taking in his friend's honor two months after Brodman died.

The 10-day trip went to Greece, where Brodman always wanted to travel. Instead, Maldonaldo spread Brodman's ashes there.

AD

AD

Before leaving from Italy, Maldonaldo posted about the trip on Facebook.

“The ship will be going to Greece, the place you always said you wanted to visit one day and didn't get to,” he wrote. “This is probably the hardest part for me to deal with, along with the part that your life was cut so short.”