Rachel Sheeley, writing for the Richmond Palladium-Item has a story entitled Woman leaps to her death; victim identified. The victim was Julie Nobbe, who I knew from high school as Julie Lammott. Not someone I knew more than in passing, but, using Facebook as a metric (we had 50 mutual friends), there was some overlap in our social circles. I feel awfully bad for her family and wish them the best. I have no idea what that must be like, but have to feel like suicide (assuming that suspicion is confirmed) raises even tougher emotions for a family member than other forms of death. It’s tough to put yourself in someone else’s shoes and really feel what was going on that brought the path of their lives to that place. Hopefully her family and friends can come to peace with their loss sooner rather than later.
I went to a big high school, so statistically speaking, it’s probably not that unusual, but at age 40, it feels like too many kids I grew up with have died already. In the 7 years I’ve been blogging, I’ve had occasion to mention:
Nina Combopiano (2005) – pulmonary embolism.
Liz Thompson (2007) – Cancer.
Tony Feller (2009) – Cancer
Carrie Spitz (2009) – Cancer.
And those are just the ones I know about since I started blogging. I’m sure there have been some I’ve missed or who were outside of my social circles and I never knew.
You look ahead and, a guy my age, plans to have another 30 or 40 years. Just as a matter of prudence, it’s wise to take a long view of things; but, don’t forget to enjoy today as well. Hug your families, people.
Heartfelt words, Doug. I am sorry for the loss to this woman’s family.
My dad told me when he went to his 40th high school reunion that you start feeling old when your classmates die. And you really start feeling old when your sports teammates die.
I graduated in ’90 too. Round about ’87 or so we had a rash of suicides, like 4 or 5. Not to mention the usual drunk driving “accidents”. So many people didn’t even make it to graduation.
For my 40th, I put on Facebook, “halfway to dead”, to which my buddy whose wife passed from breast cancer wrote, “if you’re lucky”. Hey, thanks, that brightened my day!
I’m not really sure how many we’ve lost. Some number of traffic related deaths between, like, 18 – 25. (Probably on other ends of those ages too, but that’s what is sticking in my head.) I don’t recall any suicides.
Between about 25 and 35, I lost track of most of my high school friends and acquaintances. Then with newspapers coming online and Facebook, I started becoming reacquainted and hearing when something major happened. Now we’re starting to hit the front end of health related deaths. I wonder if that’s going to be a steady increase, or if there is some kind of intermediate hill – like, if you make it to 50, you’ll probably make it to 65 or something.
People are posting names on Brewer’s facebook page. There’s are least 25 listed from our high school years who have passed. Sobering.
Doug, we are all feeling the pain here in Richmond. You are right about all that we have lost and it hits to close to home. We had many terrible things happen to friends thoughout our years but these resent ones have been making me and many others think too much about our own mortality. Loses like Julie are tougher than most especially for those of us that talked with her on a regular bases and know her family. She has left behind a wonderful son who has survived his own personal struggles and I can’t imagine what this is doing to him.
You made comment about not sure about suicide losses for school but we had a few of those to including one of my closest friends at the time, Jeremey Ogren.
Julie will be missed by all. Her smile was heart warming and sincere. You never know what a person is feeling behind a smile. We have lost many from RHS this past few years, may they all find rest.