Live On

This year my school has faced many deaths. In September a sixteen year old boy commited suicide. In the same week, a man who had graudated only the year before died in a car accident. A teacher who had cancer died in October, and she was only in her fifties. And during the weekend, a sixteen year old boy in my art program lost his father in an unexpected and sudden death. This year, I'm learning more of death than I wanted to in a lifetime. I learned how grief is different for different people, and how different it is to lose a friend, a parent, a teacher or the kid you looked up to last year.
When the boy died, the kids cried together and at a favourite hang out spot they wrote notes, placed candles, brought tributes and such. In fact someone brought his skateboard.
When the man (former student) died, we were all shocked. Some of the upper classmen lost 'a hero.' While a few cried publically, most kept their head held high as that's what he taught them.
When the teacher died, her students (and former students) and staff mourned together but they understood this lose. They knew she was in pain from the cancer and treatments.
When the boy's dad died, his whole level in the art program banded together to support him. Including teachers.

The one thing that brough them together is that somewhere, someone missed them and that they were respected in their time of death by these people attending services of whatever sort. I did not know any of these people, yet I still felt sad. It goes to show that when people saying testingly 'If I died today, no one would care,' it is false. I don't know about anyone else but I definatly would feel sad for someone who died whether I knew them or not. Really, if you think no one would care, I would care.