We weren’t close, but we stayed in touch. He and I had exchanged emails a couple of months back. He was a musician, and he had updated me on some of his new projects and recording. He was really good, had worked really hard and was getting some street cred. He was one of those “good people” that even though we didn’t have a lot in common, when you share a small cubicle space with a pregnant woman (me), you tend to get to know one another, whether you want to or not. I could just tell, that even though his life was hard, he could see his dreams becoming a reality and he had a beautiful spirit.
The kicker is that he was thirty-ish years old and he had a heart attack.
I thought about how he had mentioned in our last correspondence about some dizzy spells he was having. I had shared about my experience with that and how I had treated it. I also thought about how quickly things can change in an instant.
I feel if we don’t take pause in these circumstances when they happen in life, we aren’t learning anything during this human experience.
I have faced a lot of death in my 30-something years. Some of it has to do with being from a small town – you simply have more connections to people, but also the fact that I hail from extremely large Catholic clans. Even as a child, I tried to find meaning in every death I’ve encountered. I tend to carry those people with me in remembrance and call on them to watch over me when I am struggling with something I think they’d understand.
In this pause we take to reflect on a tragic moment or a painful loss, I come away with three things consistently: celebrate life, enjoy those that you love, and work on your dreams today.
RIP “Kenny” aka J-Rock.
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