RIP Jennifer Smith

Twenty years and two days ago, my close friend Jennifer Smith collapsed at the age of 18 and never regained consciousness. Twenty years ago today, her family disconnected her from life support. It was the most traumatic thing that had ever happened to me up to that point in my life. She was never my girlfriend. It was a mostly platonic relationship (think Ted and Robin from How I Met Your Mother), but it was a pretty tight one. I still think about her from time to time, and I stop by her grave sometimes when I have court in Fullerton. The last time I visited the grave, her stone was covered with dirt and the messages we engraved on the tree next to her grave had grown so much you could barely read them. I often wonder if any of our other friends still think about Jennifer. We all grew apart after college and I rarely talk to anyone from that gang, who all met at the no-longer-in-business Magnolia's Peach. Because of that, I often wonder if I would still know Jennifer had she not died in April 1986. The sad reality is that she and I probably wouldn't have seen each other in the last ten years. That doesn't make me any less sad on this day, however.

Comments

[Nita]

I didn't know that she passed away on the same date as Jimi; 10 years earlier. It's a sad day for me too.