A 30 Year High School Renuion Shocker

As you can tell from the last post, this hasn't been a very good week. Last night wasn't a good time either.

I haven't had too much of an interest in High School reunions. But, this year marked my 30 year reunion. I live in St Louis, about 2000 miles from the high school I graduated from (Crescenta Valley High School in La Crescenta, California), so I didn't attend, but have had some wonderful connections with my old classmates through E-Mail and our alumni webpage. In particular I have gotten to spent time with Mark and John a summer ago and have had a flurry of E-Mail traffic come through from my fellow Fremont Elementery School alumni. They are a great group of people.

But, last night I was looking through my alumni webpage and noticed that a favorite friend of my named Nancy had passed away. I knew Nancy from Junior High and High School and we had attended church together for many years while we were in school. I was a bit troubled by the write up about her on the alumni page.

Nancy was one of the sweetest and most caring people I knew. But the In Memoriam write up said,

Sadly, Nancy passed away in January, 1995, shortly before our 20th reunion. Since learning of her death, it's haunted me that I couldn't help her. If only I'd known of her troubles, I might have been able "be there" for her. So, this is my way of "being there". Nancy was a lovely, kind-hearted person, who gave of herself. As a very talented artist, she saw the world through, perhaps, different eyes, but eyes that saw and interpreted the world beautifully in her art. She was a free-spirit, but down-to-earth in many ways. Nancy had a way to make you feel "better", like everything was going to be OK. And it usually was. Unfortunately, Nancy made some choices that eventually took her away from all of us. She will forever be remembered for the dear person she was, and her friends will hold close to them always, the memories of the true angel that she is.

This doesn't even sound like the same Nancy. So, last night I E-Mail one of my freinds, the one who wrote the in memoriam and asked him what had happened to Nancy. Larry told me she had passed away from a heroine overdose. I was floored and am still floored today. This can't be the same person I went to church with and thought was so sweet.

Apparently Nancy had met someone that she later married that got her into all sorts of things I could never have imagined. I am left speachless. How does someone who walked the Christian walk abandon all that they stand for and end up perishing from a herione overdose? How does someone ruin another persons life, a person they love so much that they marry and plan to stay together forever, so completely?

I guess I'll be pondering these questions for a while. I didn't sleep much last night after hearing Larry's explanation of what happened. If you have any words of encouragement please leave them here in the comments for all to see.

I praise God that I know I am secure in my relationship with Him, but hearing this scares me for the type of life my kids will grow up living. They love the Lord, like Nancy did when I knew her, but it is hard to think that this could happen to them. It kind of shakes your world.