Did you ever know somebody who died young?

nosey rosie · 19-02-2011 01:48PM #1

In the 90's - the Summer before I went to Uni - I worked as an au pair in Madrid. It was in the suburbs, and on the bus to town, I met sisters from Cork, Judy and Yvonne. They were lovely and great craic. The elder one went off with her family on vacation. The younger one, stayed, and we went sightseeing, and eating and drinking. Last time I saw her, was a Sunday evening, we went to Aranjuez... ( sort of the Spanish equivalent of Versailles ). We cooled our legs in a fountain, and she talked about how much she loved her family, and the best part of a holiday was going home.

The following Tuesday, she died of a brain haemorrhage. Only 19... strange how, years later, it still haunts me.
Anyone else experienced anything similar?

galwayrush · 19-02-2011 01:51PM

Too many, a look at some of the headstones in our local graveyards is scary realising the amount of people younger than me that i knew who have passed on.

Up-n-atom! · 19-02-2011 01:53PM

It wasn't anyone who was especially close to me, but I went to secondary school with this guy who was known as a bit of a messer. A couple of years later he died in a car accident just around the corner from my house. He would've been around 19/20. It's kind of mad to think that someone who should be here, my age, living their lives like anyone else in their 20s, had their life snuffed out so young. You don't even think about your mortality at that age, it's scary that you could be gone, just like that.

rebel10 · 19-02-2011 01:54PM

Many, but wouldn't like to discuss them here as I would hate for a family member to see it and identify their son/daughter/wife/husband/sister or brother through my posts. Me discussing their deaths on boards seems a little insensitive.

I will say however, there has been a few deaths, of people i wasn't even that close to that has impacted on me more than people i have been close to. Strange, but its all circumstantial i suppose.

alwaysadub · 19-02-2011 01:54PM

I know lots unfortunately. Some through illness, some suddenly.

brummytom · 19-02-2011 01:54PM

I only know of one, and I didn't even really know her. Girl in the year above ("accidentally"

) strangled herself when she was about 16... very sad.

nosey rosie · 19-02-2011 01:59PM

Up-n-atom! wrote: »

It wasn't anyone who was especially close to me, but I went to secondary school with this guy who was known as a bit of a messer. A couple of years later he died in a car accident just around the corner from my house. He would've been around 19/20. It's kind of mad to think that someone who should be here, my age, living their lives like anyone else in their 20s, had their life snuffed out so young. You don't even think about your mortality at that age, it's scary that you could be gone, just like that.

Yeah, you summed it up well, thats kind of how I felt. There was nothing to distiguish us... except fate.

pragmatic1 · 19-02-2011 02:03PM

Close friend died in a freak accident in secondary school. Really nice lad too.

Asphyxia · 19-02-2011 02:08PM

A best friend of mine died when she was 17 she was in England at the time and going through hell.. she lost contact with me and I was devastated when I found out she took her own life

:(

A lad I was with was 18 when he died he was more of a best friend than a boyfriend but I still cared about him so much.. didn't hear nothing from him for ages and I went to visit him. Nobody told me he had passed it was horrible :mad:

Sangre · 19-02-2011 02:12PM

3 people from my year in school have died since we've left. I'm only 25. Attending three differnt funerals with your schools friends before the age of 25 shouldn't happen.

Wibbs · 19-02-2011 02:15PM

rebel10 wrote: »

Many, but wouldn't like to discuss them here as I would hate for a family member to see it and identify their son/daughter/wife/husband/sister or brother through my posts. Me discussing their deaths on boards seems a little insensitive.

Ditto.

rainbowdrop · 19-02-2011 02:20PM

My best friend died of Leukaemia when I was 14 (she had just turned 15). She died on Christmas Eve and I swear, the pain I felt at her death has never really left me....... Still think about her regularly all these years later (I'm 33 now)

R.I.P Kelly

El Siglo · 19-02-2011 02:23PM

A few, which isn't nice to think about.

Alter-Ego · 19-02-2011 02:31PM

Up-n-atom! wrote: »

It wasn't anyone who was especially close to me, but I went to secondary school with this guy who was known as a bit of a messer. A couple of years later he died in a car accident just around the corner from my house. He would've been around 19/20. It's kind of mad to think that someone who should be here, my age, living their lives like anyone else in their 20s, had their life snuffed out so young. You don't even think about your mortality at that age, it's scary that you could be gone, just like that.

I had the exact same experience with someone I went to school with. Doubt its the same guy as you're from Kildare. Exact same circumstances though, messer in school, died in a car crash at 20.

Its a weird feeling when someone you know dies at such a young age. Such a shock.

faceman · 19-02-2011 02:32PM

There's one I don't want to talk about but he was young, in his 20's at the time

Another chap i met on a trip to Uganda, American guy, think he was working for UN. We were very close to the Rwanda border and it was at the start of the conflict that would become the mass genocide in the country.

I was only 16/17 at the time he was early 20's. He joined us one of the nights on the lash and knowledge of first aid helped one of the lads who went overboard on the drink

Anyway a few days later he was killed in a mortar attack. We found out when we returned home to
Nairobi. Was pretty shocking at the time being so young.

Nodin · 19-02-2011 02:32PM

Yep.

3ndahalfof6 · 19-02-2011 02:33PM

it an interesting question, yes unfortunately I know of to many 7 in my immediate family, all under the age of 23 and as young as 6,

as to the young side of things if you tell someone who is 70, gees did you hear your man up the road just died he was 55,

there reply will be jasus he was fierce young.

Fozzie Bear · 19-02-2011 02:34PM

My brothers best mate Stephen died about 3 years ago. They were both 20 at the time and had been out on the Saturday night for pints. Stephen called to our house on the Sunday afternoon to see my brother they had a laugh about the night beforehand and Stephen went home. The following Monday morning my brother on his way to work found Stephens crashed van 2 miles from his home. He had lost control, hit a pillar and part of that came through the windscreen..... It was a pretty horrific week after that. Stephen was 6'2", an accomplished athlete, boxer and was well on his way to playing inter county football having represented his county at minor and U-21. It was just such a massive shock to everyone that someone so full of life, healthy and happy could be gone like that. I had chatted to him the day before he died and when I think back over it my blood runs cold. He had just a matter of hours left to live as I chatted to him.

Live your life to its fullest because you just don't know......

Novella · 19-02-2011 02:34PM

My cousin died almost two years ago when she was 15, from pneumonia.

Agricola · 19-02-2011 02:39PM

Two lads lads I went to school with committed suicide in their late 20's.
I sat beside one of them for maths in the 2 years of the leaving cert. Used to have great craic messin' down the back of the class. Hard to believe what happened to him. Im glad we never know whats in store for us.

Junco Partner · 19-02-2011 02:45PM

i lost 2 friends in first year in a crash one of them sat right in front of me. it was odd seeing their empty seat from then on.

ejmaztec · 19-02-2011 02:45PM

Several through car-crashes, drink and drugs. One was murdered hiking across India. Another guy, who we all thought to be a quiet unassuming 17 year-old, was obviously trying out auto-erotic asphyxiation, and it went wrong.

I was at college with an absolutely stunning girl, who was run over and killed outside the college.

Anyway, I was probably desensitised to all of this, because my 5 year-old sister died when I was 4.:(

I feel like a Jonah.

Equium · 19-02-2011 02:52PM

I'm only 20 now, but already three people I would of been friendly with have passed on.

One died in a car accident, one from pneumonia and another through suicide. That one was particularly hard to take as I had been talking to him earlier that day. He seemed perfectly happy at the time, but it just serves as an example of how difficult it can be to detect depression.

Xivilai · 19-02-2011 02:55PM

A very close friend died in a car accident along with 2 others, nearly four years ago. It was a couple of days before his birthday. Miss him terribly. I was still mourning the stupid killing of my 14 year old dog on the road when this happened

3 other people I spoke to but didn't really know well died young. One of them smothered in a laundry basket.

Also, a couple of people a friend of mine knew committed suicide. One hung himself in his dad's garage and not long afterwards so did his sister.... Makes you wonder, had he realised the damage it would do to his family, how different it could be..

Another friend of a friend died on the road.. boy racers *sigh*

stovelid · 19-02-2011 02:57PM

My cousin died in his early teens of leukaemia. I can't think of a worse thing than to lose a child - any age obviously but especially at such a young age.

Also a good friend hung himself in his 20s.

rainbow kirby · 19-02-2011 03:00PM

2 guys I was in primary school with committed suicide in their late teens.

Dudess · 19-02-2011 03:01PM

I'd say few of us don't.

One of the ones that still fills me with as much horror as it did at the time is: my friend from school's sister was crushed to death by a collapsing building in Cork 11 years ago. She was 20. It was a freak accident that occurred in a matter of seconds.

I've never known anything like what it did to her family...

azezil · 19-02-2011 03:01PM

Yes, unfortunately I knew 3 of them, 2 of whom were close friends (and a 4th I didn't know personally but knew his sister from college). The 2 close friends died from long term illnesses the other 2 commited suicide.

darrcow · 19-02-2011 03:10PM

my son died suddenly from heart failure aged 11 months

rebel10 · 19-02-2011 03:12PM

darrcow wrote: »

my son died suddenly from heart failure aged 11 months

I am so, so sorry to hear that.

Dudess · 19-02-2011 03:13PM

I second rebel10...

Did you ever know somebody who died young?

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