In memory of....

I’m writing in memory of a friend I lost on Sunday, known since high school, Paulee, Casper, nint and all of the above has been a great mate that’s been there for a very long time. Many lessons have been learnt from this experience, none of which I could fathom without something like this happening.

Value of friendship
I’m not saying that I’ve never valued friendship from the start, what I’m saying is to cherish every moment when you can. When its time to say goodbye, without getting a chance to say goodbye, that really says something. I never got the opportunity to say my farewell without him saying farewell back – and this is the pain I feel.

Family love…
When we went to his house for the blessing, about 20 of us stood in front of his mum while she wept. It was the most heart wrenching thing I’ve seen in my life. Never have I seen such anguish on a persons face. Not only was it hard to bear, but a close friend, whom I thought was very emotionally strong broke down. I guess it puts some real perspective into what happened.

Brotherly love…
Most of our school friends gathered at Paul’s house. From word of mouth people from all areas got together. This overwhelming feeling struck me most when I was at the crash scene, sitting there under the stars. We all huddled next to the memorial and lit him cigarettes. Why did it take for such an event to happen for us to forget our differences? Something like this had to happen for all the boys to get together again? What I’m saying is that we need to take advantage of all the times we have with our friends – don’t wait for something like this to happen for us to forget the differences we have with others.

Paul Nguyen
1985 – 2004