Almost seven years ago exactly, I lost one of my high school classmates, Stephanie Medley. It was the last days of our junior year and the seniors had already taken their finals and gone. The school on a whole was excited-excited to be essentially a year older and ready for summer. Stephanie and I were the only juniors in our weightlifting class and she had been talking about skipping out on class that morning, when weightlifting met first. I met my teacher, Joe Regna, in the gym and noticed that Stephanie's car wasn't in the parking lot. I laughed to myself. Regna sent me to the library and there I think I even mentioned to some people that Stephanie had skipped school that morning. The day went on and somewhere around lunch and when we were to return to homeroom, a dark cloud came from the rain outside and settled inside. Something was terribly wrong. They called us into the gym and told us that Stephanie had been killed.
Stephanie had indeed skipped school that day, skipped it and stayed at home to clean her little brother's room. She was making her way to school and crossing the train tracks that crossed her driveway was hit by an Amtrak train that was running an hour behind schedule. She was killed instantly. Rumors went around school that her body barely had any cuts or bruises on it. That she would of lived had her heart not exploded from the sheer fright of seeing a train barreling down at her at 60mph. At was most likely the time Stephanie died, I looked up at the clock in the library and thought that she was making her way to school about then.
Stephanie wasn't my best friend. She wasn't even I'd say a close friend. But in the semester that we shared weightlifting, we became a lot closer than we had in the years before. Stephanie wanted to be a veterinarian too. But was more interested lately in forensic science. She was tall and athletic. The phrase 'everyone's friend' gets tossed around alot but it probably was no more true than when it referred to her. Losing her before our senior year was a blow to our high school class.
So what brings this up? I was driving home to DeSoto Saturday afternoon and had already crossed the creek that signifies when I can switch to the St.Louis station I listen to. I had switched and despite the warm afternoon caught a chill and rolled up my window only to hear the opening notes and lines to Broadway by the Goo Goo Dolls. I listened to that song pretty much constantly my senior year of high school and my freshman year of college. Not because I liked it so much but because it reminded me of Stephanie. I remember that song playing one day in weightlifting. I was making posters for my class election that I would of course lose or something and Stephanie was doing homework, writing a letter to her best friend, Stacy or something. I remember singing what words I knew and looking up at Stephanie. I think that is my last memory of her.
Stephanie's death and the death of so many others, leads to the conclusion that we need crossing guards at every railroad crossing.
[EDIT-Originally, published to Blogger on May 22, 2011.]
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