Finding Peace

After reading my friend Angela, aka Mosses, blog post, it struck a cord. I'm not ashamed to say that my eyes welled up. (If you don't visit her site to read the post, it is about her elderly great aunt, mentally slipping away). It made me think about the fact that life can sometimes be incredibly short.

Later that same day, I received the unfortunate news that another classmate of mine had passed away. She was thirty years young. Like a stiff shot of whiskey, this one is incredibly hard to choke down. I still cannot wrap my brain around the fact that someone my age has lived such an abbreviated life. 

If you've been following my blog all along, then you might recall me mentioning my crappy orange bike that I was challenged to race around my block. It was she that challenged me. And I never thought I'd be writing about her one more time.

We were never the best of friends growing up, but fast forward to adulthood and maturity, and we would bs whenever we crossed paths. Recently, I thought of her as I walked the halls of my old grammar school, and passed by my old maroon locker. I had a flash memory of us sharing some loud words in front of that locker (her wanting to kick my ass for some unknown reason; we never did duke it out). I smiled; 13 year olds can be so stupid. 

My last memory of her, is seeing her near the self check-out in the grocery store last summer, and I complimented her plaid cabby hat. She mentioned how her young nephew idolized her. 

Nicole, I hope you've found peace.