Sometimes I don’t understand…….myself!

Yesterday some of my friends were going to see a play and they invited me to join them because they had an extra ticket. So, I met them at the theatre and while we were enjoying some drinks one of my friends took me aside and said ‘Hmmz, I don’t know if I should tell you this, but I think someone you know might have died last weekend’. It stupefied me for a second but then I replied by saying ‘you must be wrong, no one has called or anything’. ‘Yeah, you are right, but it’s not someone you really know…..it is someone you might have met. Today the paper had some obituaries’ she said. ‘Well what is his or her name then?’ I asked. Unfortunately she couldn’t remember, but she mentioned a few people and businesses I (sort of) know. The rest of the evening I was lost in thought, trying to figure out who this person could be. I actually can’t remember the play at all.

When the play ended, I didn’t stay for drinks but went home instead. I looked up the obituaries online and soon discovered I actually knew the person my friend had been talking about. Hmmz…knew is a big word in this case! I met the guy a couple of times and had a really nice, but above all, interesting conversation with him once. While I was looking at the obituaries my mood changed and I am not really sure why. I felt so incredibly sad, it was almost like I had lost a very close friend and today I am not really myself either…….

And that’s the part I don’t understand. Why does his passing affect me this much? Is it because:

- it is almost Christmas?
- I am just an emotional flake?
- I am thinking of his family and friends?
- Someone I actually do know, liked (admired is probably a better word) this guy enormously?

Or is it just because this guy was so passionate about everything (life, love, work and people), that he has left an everlasting impression that will live on, in me and so many others?!

He will be missed....