Kristin Roach (1984-2006)

I just learned today while poking around on Live Journal about the recent, tragic death of Kristin Roach, who was only 21. I knew Kristin from our time together at Holy Names, where she was one year behind me. She wasn’t someone I was terribly close to, but we always had nice conversations in choir. Some of her friends were pretty horrible to me, but Kristin seemed pretty much above that shit. Although she wasn’t above laughing at me when I fell down the stairs junior year. But at least she helped me pick up my things afterwards.

Kristin was the mostly upbeat girl with the mad guitar skills who really loved music and seemed generally happy with her life. I remember she seemed to frolic around more than she walked, and was always doing or saying something outrageous. I liked her very much.

It was good to see from her LJ community that she had found love and seemed to be enjoying and excelling in her short life. She obviously wasn’t anywhere near ready to leave this world, but at least she made the most of the time she had.

My heart goes out to her family, and her friends, and especially her boyfriend for all the days he’ll never get to spend with her.

And remembering that young lives can be cut so tragically short, I wanted to send a message of love out to all my friends, family and readers. None of us knows when or how we will die, but we all know that it will happen eventually. The only thing we can really do is try to stay aware of the moments and what they mean as they fly by us. And we can try to remind those people that we care for of what they mean to us.

I’d also like to share the 7th grade poem of another person I have known who died tragically young. Kyle Maginnis was a classmate of mine at Pomona College who died suddenly of a brain tumor during our Sophomore year. His parents chose to share this poem with us at his campus memorial service:

“A treasure trove is life
A chest of golden chances
A shining gem,
a crown of pearls,
this is life.

As varied as a silken tapestry.
It is an infinite thing.”

Obviously none of our lives is infinite, but within each of them we have infinite possibilities and opportunities. May we take encouragement from these tragedies to make our own lives all that much more meaningful. Perhaps that’s what we truly mean when we say, “may their memories be a blessing.”