Too Young To Die

I was trolling along Facebook yesterday when the cryptic post of an old friend from High School caught my eye. It was filled with gloom and doom about someone in her life and the name she mentioned was unique in nature, I've known of only a few people that carried it and it made me wonder if it was someone from our graduating class.

Then this morning I had a voice-mail from what can best be described as 'one of the best friends I've ever had'. John had left the message last night while I was in small-group so I didn't even know it was there until this am and sadly, the unique name mentioned in a cryptic post was indeed that of a classmate from the class of 1983. He had come down with bacterial meningitis a few days ago and last night his much too young body lost this terrible battle and he passed away.

For history sake... I began my career in that school system as a ninth grader and a significant number of the kids had been together since kindergarten so it was hard for me to fit in; a fact that was made worse by my less than pleasant attitude about moving to Irvington New York from Southern California.

That said, I didn't know this man very well. We walked in different circles in our small school and if I'm totally honest, we didn't like each other. In fact, we haven't spoken since graduating and I doubt we spoke that day. Recently we had a few pleasant Facebook moments but 850 miles and 27 years were no match for the four years we spent living in different worlds in the same place.

Stupid.

Even amid all that honesty however, I find my world reeling a little. He was too young to die and I feel enormous sorrow for his wife and three young kids and for his close friends. I spoke with another 'best friend I've ever had' this morning and he was really hurting. He was at the hospital for the final moments and he shuddered as he shared what he saw. I ache for his pain.

With so many years and so much mileage between me and this situation I can only pray for those involved that they find the now elusive peace... and that is exactly what I am doing.