Sunday, March 11, 2007

Life

We went to visit friends last night. This is a couple who I met on the same night I met the Evil Twin and we've been friends - the four of us - ever since. They also have a son who is a few months younger than Buddy and those two get along like two peas in a pod. Suffice to say that, when entering into a drinking relationship, a cheeseburger happy meal is not enough food to counteract a 1.5 liter bottle of wine, especially if, say, the person drinking the wine is only 120lbs.

Luckily, the Evil Twin rarely drinks. I think he might have had a Foster's last night (one). I woke up feeling fuzzy on our friends' couch this morning and it's just been kinda one of those days. The time change has thrown me for a loop as well.

Anyway, it's Sunday and that means "The Sunday Routine". Regardless of other shenanigans, I do the exact same thing every Sunday. I go through the entire newspaper, I go through all the sales circulars and then, I do the crossword puzzle and the cryptoquip. The section I spend the most time perusing is the obituaries. I don't know why, but I will read almost every one of them.

Today, a certain obit caught my eye. The picture was a young girl, but it was obviously a picture from the 70s (a high school senior portrait, with the drape). She looked familiar to me, but the birthdate was 1959. Same as the Evil Twin. And, she attended a high school that would have been familiar to him. I saw her parents' names listed, so I asked him if he knew this girl by her first and what I presumed was her maiden last name. He said, "No." But I walked over to him to show him her picture, he sat up and gasp.

It was an old girlfriend of his. I had seen that very picture in his albums and knew her face. Apparently, her mother has been remarried a lot so the name I presumed to be the maiden name was wrong. The obit listed no cause of death, but did say that donations could be made to the American Cancer Society, so we're thinking it was probably cancer. She was only 47 years old.

The Evil Twin said she was the sweetest girl and had a really good heart. He just lost another friend about a month ago to prostate cancer and yet another classmate is extremely ill. It's scary when you realize that many of your peers are dying left and right. And they're not even 50! It really emphasizes that our human lives are so fleeting.

RIP, Dina. The Evil Twin thought the world of you.

2 comments:

  1. Since my mom moved down here last year, she has been getting the hometown, once a week newspaper mailed to her. When she finishes reading them, she saves them for me.

    I've noticed quite a few people I went to high school with or knew from around town showing up in the obituaries.

    Puts my mind into a flatspin.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It is scary, isn't it? We're in the process of having a 30-year high school reunion, and I keep getting e-mails about this person or that person having died.

    So sorry to hear about ET's friend -- that really is too young!

    ReplyDelete