Monday, March 21, 2011

The Unthinkable

I have polled my friends and they all knew someone who died when they were a senior in high school. For me, it was Danny McLoughlin who I wrote about here.

And now, for my son, it is his classmate, John Fernando, who fell off a roof this past Friday. John wasn't a close friend of his, but when a 17 year old who you saw every day dies, it hits hard. The fragility of life, gone in such a quick moment, happens to someone, somewhere, every minute of the day. It's scary, sad, frightening, painful and mind-numbing to think about too carefully.

My heart goes out to John's parents, brother and the entire Beacon High School community who were close to him. It was a sad day indeed.

Daily News story here.

3 comments:

Media glut said...

I had a close friend die when I was 16. It was odd. He was diabetic and didn't know it.
I have home movies of Rick and his band playing at my surprise 16 birthday party.
I cried and cried.

Laura Goggin Photography said...

That's terrible. I lost four classmates that year (separate incidents) and they've never left me. It seems to be a rite of passage, witnessing and dealing with death right at that time in life when you're supposed to start the next major chapter. Condolences to the boy's family and to your son - even if they weren't close, it's a difficult and haunting experience.

Anonymous said...

This is so sad. It's kind of crazy how many high school and college boys plunge from rooftops during parties. Everyone has one of those stories and every one of them is an unnecessary loss.