KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — Dax Dickenson and his “brother” Justice spent the last year reconnecting after Dax spent the two decades serving overseas in the Army.

“We worked together here about at a year now,” Dickenson said.

The brothers have a somewhat complicated family tree. Justice is actually Dax’s nephew. Dax’s sister and Justice’s mom died when Justice was 3 years old. He was adopted by his grandparents and raised as Dax’s brother.

Dedicating more time to family is what brought Dax home from Iraq.

“I treated him just like a brother my whole life, but we never really spent time together so one of those big things for me when I came home was to kind of make that more family like relationship and spend time with my mom and my sister and my brother and my dad,” Dickenson said.

The two were reunited by their job at Cotton Eyed Joe. In the end, time just wasn’t on their side. A year after reconnecting, the brothers would be separated again when Justice was killed in a car crash.

Dickenson’s SUV collided with the back of a box truck while traveling I-640 eastbound near Millertown Pike.

Dax and his family of co-workers at the West Knoxville bar held a memorial service Wednesday. It was only right for Dax to hold Justice’s memorial service at the place that brought them back together.

“This has been one of the best things that could have happened to me,” Dax said. “Every night, we spent time together, goofed off together. That was one of the greatest parts about coming home, I found working with him in this place.”

Adie Crawford and Justice were engaged to be married.

“He was on his way to see me,” said Crawford of the wreck. “I talked to him on the phone before he left and he told me that he loved me. My family, they loved him very much. We all loved him very much. He was like the love of my life,” Crawford said.

The crash remains under active investigation by Knoxville Police Department Crash Reconstruction investigators.