Rode by the cemetery again today.

Thought about him in his cold, dark grave.

Thought about his friend , also , in a cold dark grave , but lifted up with copen , gravel , flowers ————and HEADSTONE.

Two boys, football players and friends, traveling on a country road when something went awry.   Both boys died instantly.  I don’t know  ( nor do I want to ) which one was driving.

The school went into mourning.  Two good kids with everything to live for gone in a minute.  Hard to imagine and even harder for other teens to internalize.  Crying days at our high school continued.

I attended both sad funerals and went with them to their graves.

One boy is still uplifted by family and friends.  His grave is well kept ;  flowers adorn ; his headstone clearly states his name, date of birth, date of death.

There is at the high school  ( or was when I was there ) a bench memorializing him.  It was placed in the courtyard ( which no longer  exists ) , but I am sure the bench is still on campus.  A gift for him from his family, assuring that he will never be forgotten.

The other student : nothing.

NOTHING !      No marker on his grave, no copen or gravel, no flowers.  Only those of us who saw him buried would even know he is there.

I tried.  I couldn’t find a relative and the funeral homes that I contacted had no record.

No way is this intended to imply that his family did not love him nor that they care less than the other family.  It is simply a fact.

It is a heart-breaking commentary , a true-life revelation on  “not the will but the way ” .  Sometimes there is the will but ……………  JUST . NO  . WAY !

But these graves tell a story :  a sad, sad story, and one that I will never forget.

I wanted to purchase him a headstone——with his name, date of birth, date of death, and in big letters :  FCHS STUDENT and ATHLETE .

But, I , too, was defeated.

 

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