Wasn't expecting that

Wow. Today, while looking up East St. Louis on Wikipedia (since my students read the chapter in Jonathan Kozol's Savage Inequalities on the schools there), I noticed that among the famous people from there was Kellen Winslow. I went to grade school with his son Justin, so I clicked on KW's profile idly thinking it might say something about Justin. It didn't, but Kellen Winslow II's - another son of KW's who joined the NFL - page did have something to say about it: it mentioned that during the 2006 season he attended his half-brother's funeral. Turns out that Justin died last year, of what sounds an awful lot like a drug overdose or something.

Obviously we hadn't kept in touch since I left grade school (so about 10 years or so), and it wasn't like he was one of my best friends in school or anything (though I pretty much was at least sorta friends with everyone), but I still remember hanging out with him talking about comics and trading '94 Fleer X-Men cards (he's the one who turned me onto collecting comic trading cards, which I spent $5 on every week for like 2-3 years until I started collecting comics themselves). So it definitely was kind of a shocker, since I think this is pretty much the first time one of my peers who I was actually friends with at some time in my life has died (at least that I know of).

...I suppose, though it's the first time, it won't be the last. D: