#172 - KR

I went to elementary school with a guy who was different from most of the other guys in my class.  He would sit and draw at recess instead of playing ball.  He wrote in large print with doodles all around his page edges.  This same boy was in my high school class.  In high school, he leaned even more heavily towards the arts which was his gift.  He opened his own business in high school selling painted T-shirts, notecards, and paintings which he created effortlessly.  He was our class president in 11th grade and we were in charge of the Senior Prom.  He had a vision in his head to recreate a plantation home and use an antebellum theme.  We started work months ahead of time.  What I remember most about this dance was:

1.  Creating a permanent scar on my leg from a glue gun I was using to glue border around the windows of the cafeteria.  To this day I know that if you get hot glue on your skin, you DO NOT pull it off right away.  You suck it up and let it burn you until it cools off, then you peel it off.  This saves the top layer of skin.  #172 taught me that.
2.  Local orthopaedic surgeons that are building new homes in town do not consider someone taking 2x4's from their construction site to build a plantation backdrop for a school dance a donation.
3.  They sure do make the Brothers of the Sacred Heart tough.  When the same plantation home collapsed on Brother Anthon from the roof of VCHS quadrangle (where we were securing the second floor), Brother Anthon just popped back up and said, "I've seen worse in the jungles of Uganda."
4.  It was beautiful.

This was the most infamous production of #172, but certainly not the only.  I spent a summer with #172 when we both worked as day-camp counselors and he lent his artistic talent to the campers.  This story takes a sad turn however.  Shortly after high school, he was involved in a serious car accident.  The accident left him with a closed head injury which affected the rest of his life.  He could function on his own, but his judgement was impaired.  He really could not work, and even though he recovered from the most severe of his physical injuries, he still had many deficits.

Our relationship then changed from classmates and friends to therapist - patient.  I treated him for a condition call myositis ossificans where the muscles start to harden to bone in places.  This is very painful and limits movement.  His arms and his legs were affected.  He was in and out of therapy for awhile, and was doing the best he could to get along with the hand life had dealt him.  Then one day, he died in his sleep.  I'm not exactly sure why.  He was not perfect, in fact, a he prided himself on coming off snotty to a lot of people.  His picture was next to the word preppy in the dictionary, and I cannot look at an alligator shirt with the collar flipped up and a pair of topsiders without thinking of #172.  But I also know that he was a good person and a good friend, with lots and lots of talent whose life was cut short.  I miss him and the world has missed out on what he would have become.