today and yesterday marked the sixth year without them.
it’s strange the way my hometown fell apart with their passing. i remember skipping school to go to their funerals. with matt, the church was so packed that a hundred people stood in the snow to listen to the service on speakers. with james, the service lasted from 10 in the morning until midnight - it was just a huge party.
their death put a pause on the hatred our friends had for each other, and for a few days, we realized how lucky we were to be alive and to feel love and how special that really was. as the news of their death became an inevitable truth that was easier to accept, we all fell back into our old ways. but what remains is their memory and legacy; every time i choose to catch up with my old friends (and i use that term loosely), the conversation always turns to them. it’s like the community stopped progressing once they died.
i’m glad to have met them, though their presence in my life was short.