Talk to me!
Am I the only one who wonders what happened to Curtis?
I totally get where you're coming from. Eleven years ago this week, a friend was in the back seat of a little hatchback when the driver dropped his joint while going 100km/h (65mph) on a highway. He hit the gravel shoulder. The car rolled. Everyone else lived because they didn't have a seatbelt on. He was 19.
I spend a lot of time wondering what he would be like now, how different would things have been for my sister (he was her best friend). It sucks when someone dies young.
Death and youth ... unthinkable.
My kids have had the unfortunate experience of losing a 3 HS friends. THREE, all separate stories ... that's just crazy.
Never forget ... even 20 years later.
(((hugs)))
Sorry for your loss my friend.
I don't have a personal story to add to the pile. But I wanted to say - Jesus, man, this was a powerfully written post.
Powerful.
And now I shall ponder the words--I stopped believing in heaven and such places and lay awake hoping that they exist.
My prayer would be that you never lose hope.
Nice post. It's a tribute to Curtis that his life still touches you twenty years later.
SciFi Dad- his death was a mystery, he was found dead in the desert near the airport that he worked at- we were never given a good reason
Nancy- the teen years are tough enough, sorry your kids had to deal with that
Miss Britt- Thank you, powerful is good, right?
Ed- I think hope is a pretty good thing
Darren- thanks, it's a weird feeling to miss someone longer than you had them
I don't know what to say besides, boy do you use your words well.
Thank you for sharing that memory.
Well said. Especially about no longer believing and starting to hope.
this is amazing, Whit.
That resonates. It's hard to comprehend a life taken so young. I went to a small HS (graduating class of 19) and the summer of my junior year we had one of friends and atheletes drown while swimming with a group of friends. It devastated our small school and 25 years later, it is still a vivid memory.
Sha- thanks for letting me
Papa Bradstein- thanks, that line took longer than the rest of the post, go figure
flutter- thank you very much
James- death is a strange thing, on one hand it brought my friends even closer and on the other it tore my extended family apart, coping isn't pretty
What a great post. I think most have stories of someone close to them that died way too young. Mine is of a girl, one that I'd known all my life as our fathers we police partners. She took her own life in a violent and unforgetful way.It'll be 15 years ago this December.
That was beautiful. Why is it tragedies that we can sometimes be our most eloquent? It really does humanize us.
VegasDad- Man, sorry to hear that.
Hygiene Dad- I'm not sure, maybe it's the way they break us down
I'm crying! I remember it all so vividly even twenty years later. Thank you for posting this big brother.
Wow. That is just terrible that it happened. I have lost people I love. One who was far too young (19), who showed too much promise, and was far too loved by everyone around him for it to ever be fair or just or "the right thing." I hated it and I hated religion for trying to justify it for me.
This post chopped my head off.
In college a friend was high and fell down a set of basement stairs causing severe head trauma. He was pulled off life support on Easter weekend.
One summer, in my very small hometown of 4000 people lost three teenagers all within weeks of each other. I knew them all.
One fell from the 4th story during a construction project. She died instantly. She was 21.
Another fell asleep behind the wheel and hit a tree where he burned to death. The tree was at the end of another friend driveway in the middle of nowhere. He was 19.
The third was killed in a head on collision. His passenger - his girlfriend - survived and thankfully doesn't remember any of it as he died instantly. He was 18.
He was my best guy-friend's little brother.
It's the most horrendous thing to go through. Funerals for young people are absolutely the worst thing I've ever experienced.
Any age is too young an age to die.
Whoa, this post gave me the chills.
tt- you're welcome
kapgar- it's funny how death makes some people more religious and some less
BHJ- sorry about that
Sam- wow, that's incredible- sorry to hear it. I worked with a girl when I was in college who lost her mother to cancer and her teenage brother in an accident in the same week- incredible
Lisa- too true
Some people go, but are nver gone and that seems to be Curtis for you. Remebering is good - I don't have a HS yearbook, it was too expensive. The memoris I have of that four years aren't that good anyway.
I remember it like it was yesterday as well (and the tears are streaming down my face right now).
One of my clearest memories about the funeral was when they played the Elvis song that Curtis had recorded (his recording). I also remember going down to that recording place together and I remember being so amazed when he made the recording. What a voice.
I wrote a poem about/for him on the one year anniversary of his death and left a copy near his grave. I don't think I've ever told anyone about that before now.
Keith- sorry your HS experience wasn't that great, although I must admit that in hindsight it wasn't the heyday I thought it to be
Nicole- I think I may have read that poem, did you not sign it?
Whit - I think that I probably added my initials (which you certainly would have recognized). I still have the piece in a WP file, and I see that my initials are there, so that makes sense.
powerful stuff whit. terrible stuff, but we are very lucky you choose to share. last two sentences....
wrote that 17 was too young to die, and it still is.
And twenty years is too long to be gone, for anyone.
could not be more true.
thanks again.
Nicole- I remember my aunt mentioning a poem and not knowing who it was from, nice to know
PG- thanks for reading it
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