Someone I know died this morning!

[Fishwhenican]

Someone I know died this morning. We had a bit of freezing rain this morning early and he lost control of his pickup and rolled it.

I did not know him well but have seen him around town a lot. He likes to hang out in the little tavern in town that I like to frequent and I have seen him and his family in church on Sundays. We have talked on several occasions including some this past weekend. He is a decent enough guy, hard working with a wife and 5 little kids. He is obviously from Mexico as his English is not the best and his wife barely speaks English at all. Before anyone asks, I have no idea if he is here legally or not. That is not my business and not any of the point here.

It makes me really sad to see a guy who works hard, has a family and is obviously just trying to make a living and support his family die three days before Christmas. I feel so sad for his kids that will forever associate a time that is supposed to be happy with the death of their father. I feel sad for his wife who loses her husband and is left to try and make a go of it with 5 little children.

Anyway, the point of my post is that things like this bring the fact that life is fragile and fleeting. At any given moment you or someone you love can be gone, forever. As I get older I see these kind of things more and more. These kind of things help me realize that as I deal with the day to day issues with my family and friends, I pick and choose my battles well and let the small stuff go. I try hard to realize that in the grand scheme of things small, maybe irritating, things really are not all that important. What is important is the way you treat other people, your family, friends and loved ones.

Treat others well because you never know, they could be gone tomorrow!

[kitaristi0]

The exclamation mark in your post title I thought was very interesting.

[daveT]

It's tough. It interesting how deaths can change your perspective for a short period of time, but in the end we all just end up bieng human, you know.

As for me, I have become quite numb to death. I stopped counting funerals at 14, though I have not been to one in quite a while now, but that probably has more to with the fact that I left my home town (read: unhealthy, alcoholic, violent, ghetto, where deaths are quite common). However the last time I saw a dead body was very shocking to me. I happened apon a dead body on the side walk in Key West. It does make a difference when you left home to leave that behind, and you find some dude with his brians splattered across the sidewalk. There is a huge difference between seeing a person in a casket made up to look better than they did in life, and the raw reality of death. I came to paradise to see this?

I think that the most shocking deaths are the ones where the person is 18 or 19 and has a sudden death. One person I know of and only talked to once in a while dies of drug OD. She was 18. It is really effed up to think that many of these deaths result in having to deal with the stress of leaving home and exploring new-found freedom. These people really lived through the worst of it, and had a life to look forward to. I knew two people who commited suicide while they were teenagers and one who died of cancer. But whatever, I have a laudry list of deaths. I think that these are the most shocking age. Infants are a strange breed to, but I don't find their deaths as shocking.

As for your acquaintance. I guess all that can be done is to hope for the best for his family, perhaps pitching in to help once in a while. It is a sticky situation the mother is in. She is either here in the States living in poverty, or she can go back to Mexico and live in poverty. It is terrible, but in a few months you will end up going back to human.

[youtalkfunny]

[ QUOTE ]
a wife and 5 little kids.

[/ QUOTE ]

Wow. Just tragic.

I know that's a pathetically lame reply, but my first four drafts were made up entirely of words that appear as "[censored]".

[ronchuck]

[ QUOTE ]
The exclamation mark in your post title I thought was very interesting.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, I reacted to that as well.

[Ron Burgundy]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
The exclamation mark in your post title I thought was very interesting.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, I reacted to that as well.

[/ QUOTE ]

[Fishwhenican]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
The exclamation mark in your post title I thought was very interesting.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, I reacted to that as well.

[/ QUOTE ]

[/ QUOTE ]

Sorry, I may have used punctuation incorrectly. Been a long time since I had English class. It was meant to show frustration and disappointment. I am not sure how it is being taken but that was how it was meant.

They had services for him yesterday. When they moved him out after the service he was wheeled past his wife holding their littlest daughter, who is around 6 to 8 months old. The little girl was waving at him, saying goodbye. A buddy of mine, who is a complete hardass cowboy, lost it and broke down crying while watching the little girl say goodbye to her dad. He wasn't the only one with tears in his eyes.

A bunch of us went to the tavern in town a little later in the afternoon. We bought him a beer and set it on the back porch with a can of chew (which he loved and was always bumming off of other guys). Everyone drank a toast to him and life continued on.