When A Friend Dies

911

911

Well-known Member
Location
USA
Not long after dinner last evening, the phone rang. It was an old friend from high school. He wanted to let me know that one of the kids that hung in our clique had passed away. Not long after she married, she and her husband moved to Rocky Mount, NC. She was a beautician and later turned her shop into a spa. We dated a few times, but I don’t think we loved one another.

She died from lung cancer. The funeral home director said that beauticians are prone to lung cancer because of all the chemicals they use and inhale. It’s about a 6 hour drive to where they live, so I would imagine my wife will want us to go. Her husband is really taking it hard. He told another friend he felt like putting a gun to his head. I think I talked enough about why he shouldn’t do that, so he seems better today.

He was always a tough guy. He was our football quarterback and I was the running back. He asked me to be a pallbearer and I told him I would. Her mom is still alive. I think she is right around 100 years old now. I forgot to ask about her, dog gone it. I’m sure a lot of old school chums will be there.
 

911 said:
Not long after dinner last evening, the phone rang. It was an old friend from high school. He wanted to let me know that one of the kids that hung in our clique had passed away. Not long after she married, she and her husband moved to Rocky Mount, NC. She was a beautician and later turned her shop into a spa. We dated a few times, but I don’t think we loved one another.

She died from lung cancer. The funeral home director said that beauticians are prone to lung cancer because of all the chemicals they use and inhale. It’s about a 6 hour drive to where they live, so I would imagine my wife will want us to go. Her husband is really taking it hard. He told another friend he felt like putting a gun to his head. I think I talked enough about why he shouldn’t do that, so he seems better today.

He was always a tough guy. He was our football quarterback and I was the running back. He asked me to be a pallbearer and I told him I would. Her mom is still alive. I think she is right around 100 years old now. I forgot to ask about her, dog gone it. I’m sure a lot of old school chums will be there.
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So sorry for your loss. I am finding I'm dealing with deaths more than I had been in awhile. I have a good friend in grave condition in the hospital. I don't think he will be around much more. I feel bad for what he is going through with COPD, Cancer and Congestive Heart Failure. He's had some of his illnesses for decades but now time and his body are worn out.
 
911 said:
Not long after dinner last evening, the phone rang. It was an old friend from high school. He wanted to let me know that one of the kids that hung in our clique had passed away. Not long after she married, she and her husband moved to Rocky Mount, NC. She was a beautician and later turned her shop into a spa. We dated a few times, but I don’t think we loved one another.

She died from lung cancer. The funeral home director said that beauticians are prone to lung cancer because of all the chemicals they use and inhale. It’s about a 6 hour drive to where they live, so I would imagine my wife will want us to go. Her husband is really taking it hard. He told another friend he felt like putting a gun to his head. I think I talked enough about why he shouldn’t do that, so he seems better today.

He was always a tough guy. He was our football quarterback and I was the running back. He asked me to be a pallbearer and I told him I would. Her mom is still alive. I think she is right around 100 years old now. I forgot to ask about her, dog gone it. I’m sure a lot of old school chums will be there.
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Sorry for your loss, @911! Our fragility as human beings really sinks in when friends and family depart this earth. May her memory be eternal.
 
I'm 77. That's not ancient, but half the guys in my high school class are dead. The women seem to be hanging in there. I'm saddened by the loss, yet, by the time you're my age you have to accept death as part of life. When we were all six years old in First grade, we had 80+/- years of life before us. Now, most of us are living on the "+/-" side of it.
 
911 said:
Not long after dinner last evening, the phone rang. It was an old friend from high school. He wanted to let me know that one of the kids that hung in our clique had passed away. Not long after she married, she and her husband moved to Rocky Mount, NC. She was a beautician and later turned her shop into a spa. We dated a few times, but I don’t think we loved one another.

She died from lung cancer. The funeral home director said that beauticians are prone to lung cancer because of all the chemicals they use and inhale. It’s about a 6 hour drive to where they live, so I would imagine my wife will want us to go. Her husband is really taking it hard. He told another friend he felt like putting a gun to his head. I think I talked enough about why he shouldn’t do that, so he seems better today.

He was always a tough guy. He was our football quarterback and I was the running back. He asked me to be a pallbearer and I told him I would. Her mom is still alive. I think she is right around 100 years old now. I forgot to ask about her, dog gone it. I’m sure a lot of old school chums will be there.
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Sorry for your loss😕
 
I remember it as it was happening just a few days ago but the year was 1968.

I'd already lost granduncle in November 1966 and from February 1967, the preparation for a wedding (where one annoying person was finally leaving the home...) was on...

At school straddling two years, I'd made a true friend. Thanks to my extra school work, I'd learn a very complicated language: Portuguese.

Carmen would always come to rely on me to learn the school's languages. It meant loads of translations which were fun. We'd been through loads of activities and field trips before our first huge holiday break, which we were looking forward to.

Unfortunately, our plans to get together after said holiday didn't happen... On the Saturday before the week returning to school, she was asked by her mother to go to her brothers and father fishing through ice in the river, to find home for dinner.

As she crossed the road, she was hit by a car, her head got stuck in the car's front wheel and her neck broken. She died on impact. We only found out upon returning to school and being told of her funeral.

It was my second visit to a funeral parlour but the first time that my crying was publicly complained about. Carmen and I had kept our friendship under wraps. So they didn't understood my crashing feelings.

Seeing her in her special white dress lying in her white coffin was too much, I just broke down. I still remember her smile and the fun we had. There were some promising times ahead.

I never got close to anyone else for years. 1969 was my next encounter with loss, then 1973 and just 9 months later in 1974. What didn't help completing all this grieving was the systematic destruction of our downtown by the government.

We moved to a new place that was bad and from that point on, home never felt comfortable... Surviving, made it to the 1980s and things were going to change for the better, much better...

In all of this time, I always wondered what my best friend Carmen Diego would have thought of all this upheaval... Miss you Carmen...
 
Supernatural said:
I remember it as it was happening just a few days ago but the year was 1968.

I'd already lost granduncle in November 1966 and from February 1967, the preparation for a wedding (where one annoying person was finally leaving the home...) was on...

At school straddling two years, I'd made a true friend. Thanks to my extra school work, I'd learn a very complicated language: Portuguese.

Carmen would always come to rely on me to learn the school's languages. It meant loads of translations which were fun. We'd been through loads of activities and field trips before our first huge holiday break, which we were looking forward to.

Unfortunately, our plans to get together after said holiday didn't happen... On the Saturday before the week returning to school, she was asked by her mother to go to her brothers and father fishing through ice in the river, to find home for dinner.

As she crossed the road, she was hit by a car, her head got stuck in the car's front wheel and her neck broken. She died on impact. We only found out upon returning to school and being told of her funeral.

It was my second visit to a funeral parlour but the first time that my crying was publicly complained about. Carmen and I had kept our friendship under wraps. So they didn't understood my crashing feelings.

Seeing her in her special white dress lying in her white coffin was too much, I just broke down. I still remember her smile and the fun we had. There were some promising times ahead.

I never got close to anyone else for years. 1969 was my next encounter with loss, then 1973 and just 9 months later in 1974. What didn't help completing all this grieving was the systematic destruction of our downtown by the government.

We moved to a new place that was bad and from that point on, home never felt comfortable... Surviving, made it to the 1980s and things were going to change for the better, much better...

In all of this time, I always wondered what my best friend Carmen Diego would have thought of all this upheaval... Miss you Carmen...
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Sorry about losing your friend, @Supernatural ! What a loss at such a young age! May her memory be eternal. Glad that things changed for the better.
 

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