A Guelph man killed in last Friday’s wind storm is being remembered as a kind and charismatic person who had recently started his dream job.

Adam Sura, 28, was one of two arborists who died after a tree fell on them while they were working in Milton. The other was an 18-year-old man named Zach Plater.

Nicolle Weston, who was Sura’s best friend, remembers him as loving to rap and being full of life – at turns goofy and outrageous, loving and caring.

“He would never let anybody leave a room without a hug and a kiss and an ‘I love you,’” she says.

Sura turned 28 on Thursday. He was planning to move last weekend, and had birthday celebrations with friends planned.

Instead, Weston found herself meeting complete strangers whose lives had been touched by Sura in ways large and small.

“He had a bigger heart than anybody in this entire world,” she says.

Nancy Cardinal, Sura’s aunt, says her nephew never turned down an invitation to a family function – even if it meant making the drive from his home in Guelph to hers in Mississauga and back.

“We’d open the door and there would be Adam with his arms outstretched wide, ready to give us all a big hug,” she says.

Recently, Sura started working as an arborist. Friends say it was a dream come true for him.

“He died doing something that he loved,” Weston says.

A funeral for Sura will be held Friday in Orangeville, with visitation taking place Thursday.

With reporting by Nicole Lampa