Stuff that makes you pause and reflect on everything

[Go_Blue88]

To me, the most amazing thing about tragedies like these that most of us have experienced is how they simply emphasize the almost-cliche phrase, "life goes on." Someone close to me died in a drunk-driving accident, and at the time I felt that I'd relish every second I had left in life. While I had this new outlook for a few weeks, soon bull$hit stresses returned--girls, grades, family, etc-- and he's now just a distant memory. I'd like to be able to say that his death completely changed my outlook on life, but now I sit here five years later worrying about writing a paper for a class that I don't even care about. It is impossible for people to avoid transitioning back to some form of routine. It's just strange b/c at least for me, these routines encompass such trivial things; things that I thought I'd stop caring about 5 years ago.

[KaneKungFu123]

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Bump, I think Diablo's intention with the thread title of "stuff that makes you pause and reflect on everything" was for people to post their own stories, which would be quite interesting.

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a twenty something year old women was jogging and a tree fell on and killed her instantly on the sidewalk in my neighborhood.

another one was when some psycho teenager broke into this family house and murdered a little girl, her father and mother a block away from me for no reason.

and lastly was when i watched my grandma go from alive to dead in her hospital bed and it all looked so natural, scary but peaceful at the same time.

[DasLeben]

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I have no problem with responsible concealed carry.

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Guns put away safely in one's domicile are fine. There's no such thing as "responsible concealed carry".

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Bullshit. But this isn't an appropriate thread to have this discussion.

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It's not even a discussion. It's something simple and obvious.

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...Right. In the deluded world we call ignorance.

[daveymck]

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and lastly was when i watched my grandma go from alive to dead in her hospital bed and it all looked so natural, scary but peaceful at the same time.

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I couldnt go through this mine dies two months ago now, got the phone call to go through and see her, she had been depressed and and skeleton of her former self, she was a strong opinionated woman it was terrible seeing her gasping for breath. Managed to convince her to goto hospital to make her comfortable so I said my goodbyes in the ambulance (was literally a goodbye I was too choked up for anything else) and ran in the house. My sisters went and said it was peaceful but terrible each time she stopped breathing they were is that it, silence then breath again.

What shocked me was the pain her death brought me up until the funeral a few days later it just would hit me in waves of pain and tears, it was a bizarre experience. I know if I lost my daughter based off that that it would take me forever to rebuild my life and may well be the end of it, its every paretns nightmare you worry endlessly and needlessly about you kids.


Those who can pause and reflect and do do things to change and experience a different life I would say go for it, our time is short and once you get families and relationships and kids etc etc, travel and the other things young people should do become a lot more difficult.


My second story a kid I used to live next to who I last saw when he was maybe 8 or 9 is now 25 and two weeks ago was revving his bike on that same street, went flying off lost control mounted the pavement and went through the community centre wall and window (its a wooden building) pretty much severing his arm.

[baumer]

"Nature neither knows nor cares."

Sad but true.

[peachy]

man...why did i have to read this before trying to go to sleep [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] i hate stuff like this...makes me sad

[orange]

Death brings us closer to reality in almost all circumstances. Suddenly, everything seems so meaningful, every moment living matters, and those you love are closer than ever.

Time changes these feelings- I had a very close friend of mine killed in a car accident a year ago. Did this affect me? Yes, very much so. But as of now, she is a very cherished memory, and every idea of 'living life to the fullest' is overwhelmed by everyday life.

[ethan]

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and lastly was when i watched my grandma go from alive to dead in her hospital bed and it all looked so natural, scary but peaceful at the same time.

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Death manages to be at the same time amazing...tragic and peaceful and painful and terrible and just...sad. Death just seems like such an absurd thing to witness, even after I've seen it. It's still not easy for me to accept that someone can disappear so quickly.

Death you see coming is different from unexpected death, but neither's easy. All of my grandparents have passed on, but only one did so when I was old enough to remember. Anyone else I've known who died did so unexpectedly. My roommate's brother had five close friends die in two years, after the brother'd spent significant time in a hospital getting his fibromyalgia treated. (Basically, they all had cancer.) This all happened 2-3 years ago, and this brother just turned 18. The youngest of those who died was 12 (leukemia), and her picture's sitting on their refrigerator every time I head to his house to do my laundry.

It made it very difficult for me to have any self-pity.

[DcifrThs]

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Man, sounds like they had a good shot if they just called 911 straight away, which makes it just so much more sick.

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aftermath:

nobody who was real good friends w/ johnny (moreso than beth or dave) dont really talk to him anymore...but he was always a dick to kids he didn't like and its just all coming back around to him...dont get me wrong though, he was great to my brother and had a great heart for those he liked/loved...just a short fuse and a malacious mind.

John Sr. and Ellen porzio are great great people, albeit overly tolerant parents, and can't sell their multi-million dollar house in harrison due to the events that transpired there. beth, viscome's prom date, was absolutely devastated, as were robbie's friends and family and teammates.

the whole neighborhood was agast at the death. if you drive around westchester, or anywhere aroudn there really, and you see a yellow and blue #77 stuck on the back of a car or on a backpack or a football jersey w/ RIP on it, thats in memory of robbie v.

one time my brother was watchin me play some 40/80 on paradise on my mom's bed in our home in NY and i get 7d7h in the bb, he turns to me and goes, youre gunna win this hand...i ask him why he says that and he replies 'cause robbies lookin out for ya.

i flopped a set vs. a flush and straight draw, both hit the turn. board paired the river. so that was the most "touching" poker hand i can remember. now he calls 77 robbie v.

anyways, it was rediculous that kids can be so cruel and selfish.

i do wonder how dave is doing and i should probably give him a call, he was just a great guy.

life goes on though.

thanks for the post el D. it does stop and make you think.

Barron

[fnord_too]

When I was 24, my best friend died of meningitis. I was away at school and hadn't talked to him in about a week when I got the call. Aparently he thought he had a nasty flu that had been going around, the whole thing happened astoundingly fast. That was almost 12 years ago and I still think about it a lot.

Life is at once incredibly vulnerable and incredibly resilient. Having kids is another thing that really makes you think hard about life and death.