So I didn't go to this one...
http://www.stevenspointjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080830/SPJ010301/808300440/0/SPJ06
One of my best friends called me last week absolutely balling, totally incoherent on the phone. All I could understand was that someone was dead from drunk driving. I've gotten several calls like this, not necessarily from people driving drunk, but close friends dying, and I just fucking hate it every single time. I get a sick feeling in my stomach. Ugh...
Basically this kid was a good friend of mine. We used to hang out every single summer when I was up at my Mom's house and we lived together after graduation for awhile. He had been in trouble with speed a few years back and was in prison, but he was by all accounts doing pretty good now. Always living dangerously though, would constantly be up drinking and then driving to work in the morning. He had totaled a few trucks in the last few years. This was honestly only a matter of time. I won't make any justifications for him, but it still sucks that he died. I don't know the other kid in the car at all, none of our friends do either, but I'm sorry he died too.
I guess they had been out drinking late and this kid needed to be taken home. They stopped at one of our other friends houses and he made them eat a bunch of food and tried to get them to stay, since apparently they were trashed, but they wouldn't listen. He's absolutely sick about it. He says he wishes he would have just knocked Ryan the fuck out to get him to stay. He says next time he's just going to punch someone in the jaw if they won't stay the night and sober up
I guess Ryan ended up falling asleep at the wheel and the car hit the ditch, then back into the road and flipped a bunch of times. The coroner says he died either instantly or minutes afterwords, but the cops/paramedics didn't get there until hours later.
Anyway, I guess the funeral was okay. My friends were all pall-bearers and I guess the first thing my friend Scotty said when they picked him up was "Christ, but you're a heavy fucker Ryan...". Everyone had a good laugh. And then someone who had left their dog with their car, I guess the dog got out of the car and tracked them down the road to the church and burst into the church during the ceremony. I guess everyone laughed at this and it lightened the mood a bit. Then my friend Jamie, the girl who called me, was touching the casket and saying goodbye at his grave and someone else leaned on it from the other end and it started to roll, 'cause it was on casters to put him in the ground. I guess she screamed loud as hell and nearly fainted.
I would have been there but I have put too many friends of mine in the ground to only be 25 and I refuse to do it anymore. I just won't.
So yeah, I don't know why I'm posting this. None of you guys knew him but he was a pretty important person in my life and I'm sorry to see him go. I guess typing for ten minutes is a little bit of therapy for me. I hope you don't mind too much.
Don't drink and drive, please. I know it won't make a difference. I was in a pretty bad drunk-driving wreck when I was 18, broke all my ribs and my neck, lacerated my liver and collapsed my lungs, and I still do it occasionally.
But if this makes anyone else be a bit more responsible, whether for yourself or any of your friends who may take off after having way too much to drink then maybe it serves some purpose.
R.I.P. Ryan, you stupid bastard.]
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