In memoriam

Last night I realized that it is the twentieth anniversary of the death of a friend of mine. We met as junior year study abroad students in France in 1985. I still remember the first time we met, sitting in the lounge area of the dorm we were staying in at the time. We talked for hours, and it was if we were just getting reacquainted, rather than meeting for the first time. I don't think I have felt that way when meeting anyone else in my life.

On May 16 1986, he and a friend were coming home late one night (probably drunk) and wandered onto the train tracks and were both killed by an oncoming train. Seems so unlikely that something like that would happen, but it did.

It was May 16 in France, but still May 15 in the US. I have the clippings from the newspaper in C-U and one of them states May 15 as the date of death and the other one states May 16. Odd. Somehow that prevents closure, bringing up the trivial point of which day to pinpoint as the one day.

I don't think any person, save my immediate family and my husband, has had as much of an impact on my life as he did. He was only 20 when he died, and I was 18. Rest in peace, Tom. I still think of you.