It's time for another installment of our weird Friday stories. This person just identifies herself (I THINK this was a girl. She emailed me in scented font) as a longtime lurker. She wants me to make up a name for her, so Ima call her Yardena Almog.
(Come out and delurk today, if you have always lurked. Just say, Hey, June. Love your ass.)
Okay, here it is.
I was driving home one night and at a stop sign I was randomly reminded of a childhood friend who died in a gang-related accident when I was 14... sad, sad. Anyway, I hadn't thought of him in over 20 years! But, for whatever reason, at this stop light, I suddenly thought of him and his death and how he was my first crush and one of the best people I had ever met in my short life. I wondered about his family and wondered what he'd be like today if he were still alive. I recalled fun memories of school, the neighborhood pool, and general neighborhood shenanigans. The rest of the drive was a walk down memory lane. I was sad and nostalgic.
I was thinking about the tragic way he died and I wondered if, now with the internet and the "information age," I could find something online about his death and the incidents surrounding it -- I never did get a full story of what exactly happened. I started to get excited that I could read more about it. So, as soon as I got home, I Googled him and looked for old newspaper articles that would give details. I was disappointment to see that the only thing on the internet about him was the information about where he was buried; it gave the plot number and his headstone information, etc. Nothing about the incident surrounding his death. I was bummed.
But then I looked more closely at the dates listed for his life and realized that I was suddenly thinking about him, Googling him and reading about him on his birthday! It was sooo freaky to realize that I thought about him on his birthday! I really did feel like he reached out to me from "the great beyond." For what reason, I have no idea, but I felt really good about remembering him and honoring his memory on his birthday.
Anyway, now that it's written down, it doesn't seem so dramatic, but it was really weird to experience it. Happy Freaky Friday, Yardena Almog.
