January 02, 2007

beginnings and endings

Happy new year, everyone.

So strange how death seems to be floating around lately. 5 days before Christmas, my aunt died, unexpectedly, in her sleep. She was a truly wonderful person and she will be missed.

Also, I just found out that one of my old MTSU college roommates died. Jennifer Ranish. She passed away from ovarian cancer about 6 weeks after she was diagnosed, at the age of 29. She died in February of 2003. I'm so sad that I didn't find out about it until now.

Jennifer was cheap. Jennifer was a pain in the ass. Jennifer was my friend. Together, we listened to "Once" by Pearl Jam, over & over, until we got the words right...then we sang them at the top of our lungs. We also camped out overnight for tickets when Pearl Jam played MTSU. We came up with hilarious skits about squirrels and girl scout cookie farms. She dated my best friend. She delivered some of the best cut-downs ever dished out by anyone. She moved to Florida with me when I went. We dreamed of making movies and tv shows together and, even though, I hadn't seen her since she moved back to Tennessee from Florida in '95 (when she and Randy broke up), I still thought about her a lot.

Now, when it seems like everything is falling into place for me...I find out that everything has stopped for her, at least here. I wish things had been different. I wish I had known she was sick. I wish I could have been there for her.

But, hindsight is always 20/20. We always think we have unimited time to reconnect with someone from the past, unlimted chances to ask them the questions we wanted the answers to, unlimited chances to say - thanks for being a friend. But, we don't.

So, this movie I'm doing will be dedicated to her. She was in the car on the Spring Break trip to Florida, when we came up with the idea. It's all I've got to offer her. She should have been here, too.

Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun
-- Pink Floyd, 'Time'

5 comments:

  1. Would this Jennifer Ranish happen to have grown up in Tennessee and gone to a Camp Sabra as a kid?

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  2. I stayed with Jen for most of her sickness. I actually got laid off a few days before she died giving me extra time to be with her. I still miss her

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  3. Sorry I haven't been on here in a while but, yes, Jen grew up in TN. I'm not sure if she went to that camp. I miss her too.

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  4. Several of us that went to a Jewish summer camp together as kids found one another on Facebook. Jen was the last of the group to be heard from. Sounds like this is the Jen we knew.

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  5. I miss her as well. It's truly amazing that the summer before we had gone to 6 different Doctors and not one found anything. Definitely the toughest time in my life. I felt a lot of guilt and wish I could have done more. My heart goes out to her mother Regina.

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