After hearing the official news from J.C.’s sister yesterday, I almost lost it. I was not able to stay at work for the remainder of the day, and even that evening I was not in the best of moods. Add to that I did not sleep very well and am basically feeling quite shitty this morning.
The feedback from people has all been the same. Everyone is totally stunned and shocked. I mean J.C. was a great guy and seemed to be doing so well and here this happens. I still am having a hard time dealing with this.
In my 33 years of life, I have only experienced a few deaths, and before J.C., only one of them was very close to me, my grandfather. While I was in college, I heard that Emily Pierce had committed suicide and that was a shock. Unfortunately at that time, most people were pretty cold about it since Emily was not very well liked by a lot of people. Still, a death, especially suicide, is always tragic.
Then there was Sandy LeClair’s death, also by suicide. That was a little closer to home as I had known Sandy for a few years. Still though, J.C. was a lifelong friend. The one person I had known for the bulk of my growing up. I mean, I moved to Moncton in 1985 and met him in 1987 when he followed me home from school (anyone else remember that story?). 20 years. That’s 20 years of knowing someone.
In the past few years, I hadn’t seen him that much as our lives kind of drifted apart but we still kept in touch via email and MSN, and while he was in Moncton, I’d still pop in to see him and Jason on occasion. We had a band together. We went to countless music shows and jammed together whenever we could. Some of my fondest teenage memories involve J.C. and us four horsemen just being kids and enjoying life.
Despite not having been close in the last few years, it doesn’t change how important or how special J.C. was to me, and to many other people. I am glad we will be doing our own wake here in Moncton as I really think this will be a good way for many of us to have closure with this. God knows it will be on my mind for awhile.
