  Sometimes we get those not so subtle reminders that we are human and that life is fragile. I learned last Friday that one of our summer interns was killed in a single-car accident that morning on his way back to college in Colorado. I felt horrible for his family and friends. Quite a few people here at work were pretty shaken up. He'd worked at one of our plants as an engineering intern, so I didn't think that our paths had crossed.
It was just yesterday afternoon that I realized that I did in fact know him and had talked to him a couple times -- I just hadn't put the name/person together. I even have a photo of him in my last company magazine from when he went on the bus tour of our company's various operations. I saw him the day before he passed when he came in to say goodbye to some people and pick up his last check.
He was 21 and was on a full football scholarship at the top school in the nation for his major. What really puts a rock in my gut is that his friend -- who was also out in Sacramento for the summer -- was driving in the car behind him and likely saw the whole event unfold.
Then, not too much later, I was browsing the message boards on classmates.com and saw a posting that I'd somehow missed in the last two years -- the fact that a guy, Jay, who grew up in my neighborhood and whom I'd known since junior high died of a heart attack two years ago. I distinctly remember sitting in the back of Mr. Krizman's English class with him in 1985 during our freshman year at Placer. Our class was right after lunch, and we chatted a lot -- so much so that we got in trouble a couple times.
One day he passed me a leaf from outside. On the leaf he'd written, "You are nice. " I kind of laughed and tossed it back to him. I still thought about that a lot over the years about what a sweet, gentle gesture he'd done and how it had completely made my day at the time. I'm sure that Jay's up in heaven passing all kinds of leaves to people now. 
