losing a schoolmate, it's a new feeling... Options

[aud_chua]

i found out this morning that my shoolmate died as he was getting his tux for prom.. i was really shocked cuz he wasn't a bad guy at all.. he was really cool with everybody.. he wasn't associated with any gangs....
it's the first time that someone i knew died.. i never experienced this kind of loss before.. i don't know how to feel... he wasn't really a close friend.. but i feel bad that he's gone..
it just makes me realize how unpredictable life is... how easy life can slip away..
has anyone experienced the loss of a loved one or friend.... or just someone you knew?? how do you cope with it...?

[onenonly101]

Yeah in january my friend died. She was only 19 and there was nothing anyone could do because she had a blood disease called TTP. It is VERY VERY rare and alot of people have survived but she didn't. My sister and her were REALLY REALLY close friends and our families have always been close, but then we kinda fell apart but were coming back together when we learned she wa sin the hospital .I remember everything clearly. One wednesday in January we were at church and she hadn't been in a while on wednesday because she was in school at Spelman university, but she made it this week and she was going to start helping out with preschool cuz she loved kids. She was showing us some bruises on her legs and stomach and arms and she didn't know how they got on theit and we told her go to the doctor and she told us she was going on the next day. Well they didn't know what was wrong with her but the pain kept going and on Sunday she went back to the hospital then on Tuesday night she was rushed in because it was so painful she couldn't move then on Saturday they told us she was on a respirator because their was blood in her lungs and she was trying so hard to breathe. That sunday me and two of my sisters went to visit her. it was so hard not to cry because i have never seen anyone in so much pain and we stayed until late. We came back on Monday. Then the next week on Sunday we came back there was the ENTIRE college department at the hospital waiting to see her. It was so overwelming the support she had, cuz she was just herself, so sarcastic,loving, and funny, and always listening to others problems. We were going to see her again on Saturday but she died on Friday night @ 10. My mom told me the next morning. My other sisters had found out in the nighttime because the college depo pator called our house and told my mom and she screamed my sister ubani(her close friend) and my other sister ran out screaming for someone to say what happened cuz my dad was downstairs just starting at the screen not saying anythin. Then my mom told them and ubani started screaming and so did ori(other sis) i don't know how i didn't wake up. then they called my other sister nenna and leslie(friend who passed away's sister)'s 2 friends and they came to out house then ori called boyin(one of leslie's friends) and peju(friend who passed away one of her firends. at church it was always ubani,peju,shayla, and chichi-one who died) first she told boyin then peju and you could her peju screaming.gosh...... i didn't mean to write all that but it just came. That was just the night she died I hadn't even found out yet then we had to tell her friends that ngiht calling them then everyone at church and so on...it was a difficult week.