Wednesday, November 14, 2007

funerals and whatnot

These shoes have a history. They used to belong to my roommate (who was the only person I've ever lived with who wore the same size shoe as me) and I loved them so much that when she moved to Washington DC, she gave them to me. Maybe seems strange to give a pair of shoes to someone like me, who buys them compulsively, but I still love them.

Today I'm wearing them to the funeral of a student. He was a senior, in honors classes, sweet and funny. And in trying to avoid rear-ending someone, he swerved into a guy wire, flipped his car and was killed. I'm sad for Matt and his family, but all week I've also often been moved to tears because it reminds me of the friends I lost when I was in high school and the total waste of it all - then and now. It also reminds me of how good and generous teenagers are: Matt's mom didn't have life insurance on him so didn't know how to pay for the funeral. In the last two days, the kids at our school have donated more than $2000. That's without even going into the community - that's kids, some of whom didn't even know Matt, giving their lunch money, their fun money, their savings so that a mother in tragedy doesn't have to worry quite so much about this one thing.

And now I'm crying again. Enjoy the shoes.

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