What would she be like now...

[valeriedl]

My husband and I started looking at pictures from high school this evening.

I found pictures of one of my best friends who died in a horse riding accident our junior year. I just lost it and started bawling (I'm starting to cry now just thinking about her). She taught me how to ride a horse too.

She was just the greatest person. She didn't care what anyone thought about her or what she did, as long as she was happy that was all that mattered. She didn't have to wear the fancy clothes. Half the time if I had old clothes she took them and thats what she wore. I even had the ugliest dress that I wore to one of our school dances, she took it and wore it to one. She had long hair and got sick of it so she chopped it off herself. It didn't look too bad, but it was good enough for her. I think when we went out she was the one who had the best time.

I learned alot from her because I that's how I try to live my life now. I just want to have fun. Even if I go somewhere that I don't really don't want to go, for example my husband and I are going to a concert in a few days. I only know about 2 songs the band sings and I don't care for them too much, but I'm going to have a good time no matter what - I've convinced myself of that.

I just wonder what she would be like now. What would she be doing, what kind of job would she have, would she be mairried, have kids, where would she be living and all sorts of things like that.

I'm not a religious person. I don't know where you go in the after life, if there is one. I would just love to know what she would be doing with herself if she weren't gone.

[Nakamova]

I think the human ability to ask "What If" can be both a gift and curse. It's a gift that can enrich our lives or point us in new directions (what if I were to take tango lessons), yet it can also be a curse with which we torture ourselves (what if I had seen that stop sign). I like to think there are parallel universes out there where we are all living different versions of our lives with different outcomes -- including your friend. (The recent movie "Source Code" touches on this idea).

[CarrieH]

I had a brother born 5 years before me very premature. He lived three days. I too wonder what he would be like as a man in his thirties. I don't think my parents ever got over it, he was the only boy out of four biological kids.

Personally, I feel people come across other folks in life in order to learn lessons and become a better person in general. Thanks for sharing your memories of such a very special person. :-)