Vin Diesel is remembering Paul Walker on what would have been the late actor’s 50th birthday.
The “XXX” star shared a throwback photo on Instagram Tuesday of the “Fast & Furious” castmates smiling at the camera with Walker’s arm slung around Diesel’s neck.
“A decade… ten long years… and yet it feels like yesterday when we were singing happy birthday to you for the big 40!” he captioned the post.
“The world isn’t the same brother… as a species, one might say we are struggling. But I think of you, and I smile and know everything is going to be alright.”
Walker was killed in November 2013 as a passenger in a speeding car that lost control and smashed into a light pole in California. He was 40 years old.
In his tribute, Diesel, 56, shared that he had been “going through some images to celebrate this sacred day” when his 13-year-old son, Vincent, walked into his office.
“[He] looked over my shoulder. ‘That’s such a timeless photo, Dad… one that will live on for generations of humanity…'” the “Chronicles of Riddick” star wrote, noting that he was in tears.
“Of course I don’t turn around, haha no need for the kid to see his pops worked up eyes. As he leaves he says ‘it’s why I want to build cars, for him.'”
Diesel noted that Vincent “wasn’t even born yet” when the photo was taken, but seven months later, Walker announced to the “Fast & Furious” crew, “‘Vins gotta get to New York to receive his son.'”
“You had that ability to refocus everyone including a whole production to the important things in life,” he wrote. “For me this picture represents the moment I knew we would be brothers for eternity.”
Diesel told his followers that if Walker were alive now, he doubts there would be a crowd of friends serenading him with “Happy Birthday” because the “She’s All That” star “would be in Maui or Morocco, or anywhere in this planet where people need help.”
Diesel ended the heartfelt missive by writing, “I miss you… I love you, and I will continue to honor the beautiful soul you are. Happy Birthday…”
The “Guardians of the Galaxy” star regularly pays tribute to his fallen friend online and in interviews.
In 2015, Diesel revealed that he and his longtime partner, Paloma Jiménez, had named their third child Pauline after Walker.
During a “Today” show appearance, the One Race Films founder shared that he was thinking of the “Varsity Blues” star in the delivery room.
“There’s no other person that I’m thinking about as I’m cutting this umbilical cord,” he said. “I knew he was there, and I felt like, you know, a way to keep his memory a part of my memory, a part of my world.”
Diesel later shared that he considered Walker to be his “other half.”
