Life and the Universe is eternally unfair. That is a fact none of us will ever escape. It is often unfathomable to comprehend the cruel twists of fate many suffer. I often think about my favorite Alanis Morissette song "Ironic" when I think about life's dirty tricks. That song says it all.
I also often wonder about the people I went to school with. Thanks to social media we can all find one another and see how everyone turned out, well for the most part, who knows what everyone is lying about on social media. One of the worst discoveries is finding out how much sadness and tragedy struck so many. Car accidents, cancer, murder, alcoholism, it's enough to make you want to hide.
So let's hear some stories...
Redditor u/ajchann123wanted to chat about the people we leave behind in youth by asking:
Who in your high school graduating class had the most tragic adult life?
In high school I had an acquaintance named Katy. Katy was so sweet. She was popular but still had a heart and never looked down upon us second and tier mates. She would often stand up other people's bullies. I always thought, she's going to live a great life and she deserves it...
Life is Unfair
"I am old so my graduating class will be on average 43 now. There are many deaths, tragic divorces etc. The following is the most tragic story among my friends. A girl that I was close to from kindergarten through graduation and stayed in touch with afterward. She married in her 30's and had trouble conceiving children."
"She spent 8 years and thousands and thousands of dollars in order to get pregnant. She was told it wasn't going to happen. One week after the doctor confirmed her only pregnancy in all that time - she was diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumor. She died 3 weeks after her beautiful son was born."
- gogomom
30
"The wild child girl that ended up married with 2 beautiful kids and set in life only to be killed in an accident with a street racer at 30. The racer hit her doing over 100 miles an hour on a neighbourhood street. Got a minimal sentence. 9 months."
Bad Brain
"Kid from my school was an amazing musician. He won every possible award for music at the regional/state level, then got a full scholarship to a prestigious music school. Freshman year, he died of a brain aneurysm in his sleep."
"Just be happy he didn't suffer. That's all you can wish for with a brain aneurysm."
9 Months
"Mine is a chillingly story:"
"A high school classmate of mine, married late, struggled to get pregnant, had her first child at 40, was diagnosed with late stage lung cancer 9 months later and died a week before her daughter's 1st birthday."
Farewell Friends
"I'm mid-40s and at primary school (ages 4-11) was very friendly with a group of other girls, called D, T, and A. As well as our time together at school we spent our evenings and weekends together, and I have happy memories of long summer holidays playing at each other's homes. D became very sick aged 11 and died of leukaemia a year later. T died aged 21 in a car crash with her fiancé. He was driving them home late one night when he lost control of the car and it left the road."
"All four occupants of the car were killed. My poor, beautiful friends. I feel so sad for the suffering each of them has endured. I occasionally see D's dad and I can't begin to describe the pain in his eyes, knowing that D never got the chance to grow up."
"universe has no justice"
"My friend finished university, was about to earn his PhD, got out of an abusive relationship, but finally found a nice girl. And then they died together in a car crash."
"Nothing in this thread really got to me. It all kinda struck as the usual "universe has no justice" fare. but, for some reason, posts like this always get to me. It's so nice they found each other and got to be together, but they still died. Like. That sucks. I don't know."
The Diffuser
"A guy I graduated high school with. He went to U of Iowa. One of the nicest guys I've ever known. Was outside of a bar and some guy was yelling at and pushing another guy. He went over to diffuse the situation and the guy starting everything popped him hard in the face, then smacked his head against a brick wall. Went unconscious, and when he came to his friends took him home (bad idea)."
"Next day he was unconscious and taken to the hospital. Died a week later. The guy got 10 years for voluntary manslaughter, $1,000 fine and $150,000 to the guy's estate. The father reached settlement of $1.7mil from lawsuits against the two bars serving the attacker."
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Lionheart
"Kid had cancer all his young life. Was at death's door numerous times, but always rebounded. Had the heart of a lion, never gave up, never surrendered. He was declared cancer free on his 18th birthday, and got hit and killed by a drunk driver after his senior prom."
- Adddicus
the bully
"My lifelong bully, from early childhood till she dropped out of high school ended up living a very short, tragic life. She made my life a living hell. She would jump me and harass me and terrorize me on a daily basis for years. She died of a gastro bleed in her apartment. She was there, alone, dead, for about 6 weeks."
"The apartment manager finally broke in and found her and her 3 month old baby dead on the floor when she wouldn't answer the phone calls about rent being so late. She bled out. She died of internal bleeding. Her baby starved. No one heard/smelled anything due to the way the flats were set up. No one came looking for her except her landlord."
Nick
"Nick Adenhart. Hell of a ball player. Works his butt off all his life to realize his dream of becoming a Major League pitcher. Finally realizes that dream, starts his first game, and is killed by a drunk driver a few hours later."
"Rest in peace, Nick."
- MrFuxIt
After grade 9
"Dude I actually went to public school with in the first place, met his one love in grade 9. They near-immediately started dating, attended university near one another, lived together, the works. They get married, have two kids, great jobs, everything just lined up perfectly - until he died suddenly of heart failure. Not sure which is more tragic: his passing, or her moving on with two kids under five without him."
Dying Rich
"Our valedictorian dropped out of college due to his rich parents dying in a tragic accident and through a series of lawsuits (on the estate by business partners), had pretty much nothing left to him. So he moved to Northern Rural Illinois and works at a factory or a warehouse place. I hear about him through my sister. He has a stable life but is still incredibly depressed."
3 hours later...
"My school had a guy die like 3 hours after graduation. They were drunk, stoned and who knows what else. Somehow they ended up with a gun and were trying to spin it on their fingers or some crap and the gun ended up firing. Hit the guy right in the head."
- Revircs
Complications
"One girl had hydrocephalus. She was a nice girl, quiet, and always seemed to be sick. I was kind of friends with her past graduation, and whenever I was on AIM we would chat a little bit. She always seemed to be getting ready for another surgery, or just had one."
"On top of that, her personal life was rough -- around five relatives of hers died within a span of three years. She died age 22 from complications. I wanted to go to the funeral, but it happened while I was across the country. What a sad, crappy way to go."
She was spared...
"One of mine (year below though) had her entire family (including extended family) murdered by one of her cousins. For whatever reason she stayed at a friend's house the night they were all murdered at her house."
Check to Check
"A bit different than the death ones. Almost my entire graduating class. Attended an evangelical Christian high school (no alternate schools in the area) and most of them wound-up married young, uneducated, living paycheque-to-paycheque, unhappy because they aren't the same people at 35 they were at 18 and are stuck with partners who have nothing in common with them. Consequently, I don't attend reunions."
Where to begin?
"Our most likely to succeed has 4 kids with two different women, has been arrested for domestic violence, is on his second marriage and left his first bride to be at the alter, lost his house to foreclosure, lives in a trailer, and cannot hold down a job for more than 2 years."
No Justice
"A girl I knew, super sweet and very motivated to help others. She became a counselor for people in need and drug addicts. Then died of ridiculously rare cancer in her mid 20s. She was better than most of us, and her death is proof there is no justice in the universe."
So Young
"The guy that used to bully me in elementary school ended up getting testicular cancer. I think he's still alive but last I heard he wasn't doing well at all. We're only 25."
Five years after school, while on the way to her wedding dress appointment a car jumped a median and landed on Katy's car, crushing and killing her instantly. They were driving in different directions. Now I get head-on collisions, in fact, we look out for those, they're often easy to avoid...
But how in the world can we prepare for a schmuck, who was going too fast, to accidentally jump a median? Awful. Poor Katy. She deserved better. And so did a lot of these people. I hope they all find or found peace eventually.
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