![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
This journal has the emo
Aug. 28th, 2007 11:36 pmMy neighbor is dead.
He was out cutting his grass tonight and they think he had a heart attack. He was 50. His wife pulled into the driveway after work and found him lying on the front lawn. They called EMS, tried to revive him, but he died in his front yard. It was a very well-manicured lawn.
I was there when it happened. Well, not there there. In my own driveway. I'd come downstairs to get a glass of water and saw lights outside. 'Went out and saw a whole phalanx of police cars, an ambulance and a fire truck clustered around the edge of the block. His family was hovering around the sidewalk. I couldn't see their faces, but I know how my face would have been composed. I watched this guy's wife walk into the middle of the street away from the EMTs, bow her head to her knees, and let out this terrible sound. One minute he was there, the next minute he wasn't. And you know, there wasn't anything really significant in that half a second between one and the other. No flash of lightning. No roll of thunder. God didn't stick his hand out of heaven and sweep him up, Swing Low Sweet Chariot-style.
It was just: quiet, then that sound.
Todd was there. We hugged. Made plans. 'Guy can't do either of those things anymore.
I came back inside and had a cookie. I figured, "Well, fuck living carefully now."
Weird. Weird is a good word for what that was.
He was out cutting his grass tonight and they think he had a heart attack. He was 50. His wife pulled into the driveway after work and found him lying on the front lawn. They called EMS, tried to revive him, but he died in his front yard. It was a very well-manicured lawn.
I was there when it happened. Well, not there there. In my own driveway. I'd come downstairs to get a glass of water and saw lights outside. 'Went out and saw a whole phalanx of police cars, an ambulance and a fire truck clustered around the edge of the block. His family was hovering around the sidewalk. I couldn't see their faces, but I know how my face would have been composed. I watched this guy's wife walk into the middle of the street away from the EMTs, bow her head to her knees, and let out this terrible sound. One minute he was there, the next minute he wasn't. And you know, there wasn't anything really significant in that half a second between one and the other. No flash of lightning. No roll of thunder. God didn't stick his hand out of heaven and sweep him up, Swing Low Sweet Chariot-style.
It was just: quiet, then that sound.
Todd was there. We hugged. Made plans. 'Guy can't do either of those things anymore.
I came back inside and had a cookie. I figured, "Well, fuck living carefully now."
Weird. Weird is a good word for what that was.
