Passing On (A Serious Note)
Emily Gentholts was born 7 years and 1 day after me. She was from Bozeman, and going to college in Minnesota. She was in Bozeman for the summer doing research and playing Ultimate. She died last Sunday in a car wreck coming back from an Ultimate Tournament in Salt Lake City. You can read her obituary from today’s paper here I had played Ulimate with her a handful of times and talked some at an Ultimate Party a couple weeks ago. She struck me as being extremely pleasant and thoughtful. The type of person who was usually smiling with positive things to say. The Wednesday before she died we were playing Ultimate on a typical pleasant Bozeman evening and I was complimenting her attire of grey sweatpants rolled up above her knees with tube socks.
The tournament in Salt Lake City was a tournament I was seriously thinking about going to. There was a car full of Bozeman Ultimate Players behind the car Emily was riding in who were the first on the scene. Apparently an animal was involved, and Emily was sleeping in the back seat without a seat belt on. Thankfully the driver of that car is very much ok. The driver of the other car was 8-months pregnant,she deIivered her baby by c-section that night. Last I heard she was in the hospital in critical condition. I was told the impact literally split the car Emily was riding in the backseat of in half.
In case you forgot, cars are dangerous. I had not really been giving that a lot of thought recently but this has certainly brought it to my attention. Please be careful.
It seems like I’ve known more people to die in this past year than the rest of my life combined. Most of them did not have the chance to grow old. Grandma, Eben’s friend Wade ( I did not know him but I do know he was way too young), my friend Joe’s father, who was also Kezia’s uncle, passed away a few months ago at 52, and now Emily. It is very easy to forget that people don’t live forever. I wish people would be nicer to each other sometimes. I don’t understand why that is so difficult.
