Yesterday (November 20, 2012) would have marked the 42nd birthday of a gentleman with whom I went to school from kindergarten through the eighth grade. He was unable to celebrate with his wife, children, family and friends because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time - a place that I myself had been only ten hours earlier.
Here is my Facebook status update dated November 20, 2010:
On 08/01/2007, 13 people passed away when the I-35W Mississippi River Bridge collapsed. One of those individuals was a former classmate of mine, Patrick Holmes.
Although I had not seen Pat for over 20 years, his passing had a profound impact upon me, as well as countless others.
Please join me in remembering a classmate, friend, son, husband, and father who would have celebrated his 40th birthday today.
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| http://projects.dot.state.mn.us/35wbridge/ |
The primary impact over the course of the past five-plus years is that I no longer allow myself to waste opportunities to engage with someone. If I see someone in public who looks remotely familiar, I will usually go out of my way to talk with him or her. Sometimes I am wrong, and the other person is a complete stranger. I haven't made any new friends this way, but the worst thing that has happened is that I have shared even the briefest of conversations with people. There has never been a bad experience for me because of this new outlook on life, and some days, it has been a tremendous bright spot.
My only wish is that I could have come to that epiphany through another process, and I hope that this story can serve to help others adopt a similar mindset.
The bridge was rebuilt, and it reopened on September 18, 2008.
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