Monday, July 23, 2007
Caroline Cheung
I'm not going to claim I was friends with Caroline Cheung, or that I knew her very well. Can't even recall if I even had a conversation with her. There are a lot of people you'd see at high school/elementary school where you'd know their name, whereabouts they're from and which group of friends they hung out with, but you never actually spoke with them. I think that's where Caroline fits.
I bring this up because I was quite shocked to hear of her passing yesterday. Caroline was rock climbing in B.C. a few weeks ago, and she fell 23 meters and died. Caroline was 32 years old. Not sure if she was married or had kids.
It just freaks me out when I hear a story like that. She was young, and I sort of knew her. And now she's gone.
Kind of reminds me when Ardeth Wood was found dead about three years ago: It was shocking and it came out of nowhere. If that wasn't upsetting enough, a very good friend of Ardeth's (at least during high school) named Angela Aebig was killed in a motor vehicle accident a few days before Christmas. I believe the story was she was with her husband when the car spun out of control and they had to stop. After getting out of the car, she walked back to it to get it off the road, and that's when she was struck by a car. She died at 27 or 28 years old, less than a year after getting married.
Not sure why, but I really take these stories to heart. It's one thing to die of old age, but to lose your life when you should have so many years ahead of you is just awful. It makes me more aware of my mortality, and sometimes when I have too much time on my hands, I stop and think how scary it would be the moment it all ends. Perhaps morbid, but it sure does help keep everything in perspective for all those times I'm feeling down. At the very least, I still have my life to live.
I bring this up because I was quite shocked to hear of her passing yesterday. Caroline was rock climbing in B.C. a few weeks ago, and she fell 23 meters and died. Caroline was 32 years old. Not sure if she was married or had kids.
It just freaks me out when I hear a story like that. She was young, and I sort of knew her. And now she's gone.
Kind of reminds me when Ardeth Wood was found dead about three years ago: It was shocking and it came out of nowhere. If that wasn't upsetting enough, a very good friend of Ardeth's (at least during high school) named Angela Aebig was killed in a motor vehicle accident a few days before Christmas. I believe the story was she was with her husband when the car spun out of control and they had to stop. After getting out of the car, she walked back to it to get it off the road, and that's when she was struck by a car. She died at 27 or 28 years old, less than a year after getting married.
Not sure why, but I really take these stories to heart. It's one thing to die of old age, but to lose your life when you should have so many years ahead of you is just awful. It makes me more aware of my mortality, and sometimes when I have too much time on my hands, I stop and think how scary it would be the moment it all ends. Perhaps morbid, but it sure does help keep everything in perspective for all those times I'm feeling down. At the very least, I still have my life to live.
# posted by SBP : 8:59 PM
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Its sad that the LBP community has lost so many friends before their time. I have memories of all three of these people.
Let's also remember Tara French's and Rema Saab's brothers who passed away at a such a young age.
Let's also remember Tara French's and Rema Saab's brothers who passed away at a such a young age.
# posted by 
: 12:11 AM, July 24, 2007
: 12:11 AM, July 24, 2007
Tracy and I have lost friends in sober MVA's and in DUIs. IT is a horrible way to lose some one and is something that frustrates those closest to them.
One thing I did take from my years of being forced to go to church is that I am a strong believer that we do have “a time” -and even if that line of thinking is just a way of making sense of someone’s time being at 8, 18, 28 or 68... then so be it.
For example coming back to the first death of the Vancouver climber, Caroline. If Tracy and I are ever caught in a situation where the worse could happen -and we had a near close call two years ago in the mountains- I would not immediately be happy that we died doing what we loved, and I would still fear death, but what I do know is that my family would repeat the words “at least he was doing something he loved”.
Which may give them some comfort but at least there might be something to hang on to. So your right the bottom line is; these sad stories -if anything- should inspire us to live every minute to its very most.
RIP to all those we are thinking of at the moment.
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One thing I did take from my years of being forced to go to church is that I am a strong believer that we do have “a time” -and even if that line of thinking is just a way of making sense of someone’s time being at 8, 18, 28 or 68... then so be it.
For example coming back to the first death of the Vancouver climber, Caroline. If Tracy and I are ever caught in a situation where the worse could happen -and we had a near close call two years ago in the mountains- I would not immediately be happy that we died doing what we loved, and I would still fear death, but what I do know is that my family would repeat the words “at least he was doing something he loved”.
Which may give them some comfort but at least there might be something to hang on to. So your right the bottom line is; these sad stories -if anything- should inspire us to live every minute to its very most.
RIP to all those we are thinking of at the moment.
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