September 17, 2024
I had a friend named Jenna.
We met in high school and we shared a couple classes together. Our claim to fame was the time that both of our bands co-headlined a punk show for Halloween of our senior year (that we ourselves organized, but still).
I always thought she was super cool. She was friendly, she got along with everybody, she was funny, and the times we did hang out she was really fun to hang out with. She seemed like she was never afraid to be herself, which I really admired.
Almost 20 years later, we met again. She worked at Trader Joes in the town we went to high school in. I had just moved back a few years earlier. When I saw her, she yelled out my name and ran up and gave me a hug. We caught up a bit, and every time I would do the family shopping I would see her and have a nice chat. Besides the time lapse, she was the same character that I remembered from high school.
As fate would have it, her youngest son and our oldest daughter ended up in the same preschool class together. It was great to see her walk her boys to school after we made the morning commute. One day, our daughter had a rough moment and Jenna saw her crying and brought her a card with some candy.
We were saddened that we had to transfer our daughter to a closer school at the end of the year because we knew we wouldn’t see Jenna or her boys so much. We wondered how they were doing as the months brought us to the new school year.
A few weeks ago my wife called me crying. She somehow came across a post on social media that Jenna had passed at the beginning of August 2024. We didn’t find out til almost a month later, and we had just missed her memorial.
This happened 2 weeks ago.
Her passing haunts me every day.
It haunts me how suddenly and how out of the blue it happened.
She went from being a staple in my life to someone that I will never see again.
We take for granted the people that we see every day, or often. Anyone can be gone in a moments notice.
If you get a chance, please tell people how much you love them, care for them, or how much they mean to you. It seems so simple or even embarrassing at times, but it’s so important. Share with people as often as you can.