18 years?!?! Holy [bleep]! You have a "friend" for two decades and you don't want to tell him the hatchet wound he munches on has been slayed by Mandingo?
How do you come up with this..? It's like a "Gift", you should write for Hallmark...have your own line of GFY cards...
That is it! This is how you should tell him.
Give him a card that says "sorry the hatchet wound you have been munching on has been slayed by Mandingo."