bad things happen in "3"'s

A couple weeks ago my "aunt frieda" died. She's not really my aunt, I think she was maybe my mom's first husband's aunt or something? I never really understood what actual relation she was to us. But she's always seemed really old and really nice and I remember going there every Halloween for trick-or-treat. Even though I wasn't close to her, it's still sad.

Monday I found out that one of my professors died over the weekend. Tuesday night I went to the calling hours, since I couldn't attend the funeral due to work.

There was a line to get in the door, and to wait to talk to the family.

He died of cancer, and was relatively young - early 50s. There were family friends, colleagues, and students. One guy from my class flew out from California to be there. He was very well liked and respected. Even though I hadn't actually talked to him for a couple of years, I still feel a big sense of loss now that he's gone.

The weird thing about the calling hours was that there were all of these classmates of mine. Some I remembered and some I didn't. So while we were all really sad, we had these little mini-reunions going on at the same time. It's perhaps a testament to how fast news travels at a small school (and even smaller conservatory of music) that he died Saturday, and everyone found out Sunday or early Monday, even though we've all been away from school for several years now, and aren't necessarily "close" to him or the family.