Leukemia
When I was fifteen, we moved from my childhood home to new house in another town, and I went to a new school. This came with the usual things of being a new kid on the block, trying to make new friends and fitting in. It went all right, I made new friends, some girls had a crush on me, and I found my place there for the most part. However, I was not the only new kid in school. Another new boy had joined my class at the same time. I got know him a little bit, since he didn’t live far away from me and we sometimes walked home from school together. I have forgotten his name. We hung out a few times, but he was often absent from school for some reason. I later found out from our teacher that he had leukemia. I had no idea what that was and how serious it is. I didn’t think too much of it and gathered that I would see him later at school. I never did. Only two months into school we were all informed that he had died, died from leukemia. This is early November 1987. There was a funeral for him and the whole class went. This was a very strange feeling for me sitting there in the church. I did not know if should cry like the girls did or how I should act. It never occurred to me that a student my age could just die like that. Dying was for old people. I remember the church played the song “Yesterday” by the Beatles. “Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away …”. When I hear that song, it reminds me of death. It seems the troubles always catch up with us in the end.
A.G. Munson
