In a funk

This may be a bit of a depressing post, and is about a friend that died in a car crash.

I had a dream last night of a close friend that passed away my junior year of high school. I will occasionally have a dream about him, maybe once a year, but it always puts me in a funk.

Some of you (those few that know about and read my blog that went to high school with me) know who I'm talking about - Dave Nable. He lived down the road from me, we went through elementary, middle, and high school together, and we were good friends starting in 1st grade. I remember he was the first person my age to give me a piggy back ride (I was/am tall, and always taller/bigger than all my friends). In first grade he teased me because I still hadn't lost my front teeth and everyone else had. At that start of every year, we would always compare our heights and I was always taller. I remember the day we compared and he was finally taller than me (I think that was 6th or 7th grade). He stood up for me in 4th grade when mean Danny Nunez was picking on me and actually hit me (no joke, this kid was mean). In 7th grade he outed my crush on David Talley to the whole Algebra class (really embarrassing, I kinda yelled at him during break for that one.) In 8th grade we were part of a mentoring group that would go over to the elementary school and help tutor 3rd graders that were struggling in math and we would always sit together on the bus. In the summer between 8th and 9th grade, about 45 of us went to Washington, D.C. While the girls and the guys more or less stuck to their own groups, Dave and I would cut up during those boring times of waiting in line, and a few of us would usually eat together (Lauren, I think you were part of that group. It was such a long time ago, I have a hard time remembering the details.)

In high school we sort of went our separate ways. He had his Ag friends, and I had my band nerd friends, but we never forgot our friendship. I would occasionally see him fishing out of the lake in my neighborhood, and my mom and I would always stop to say hi. One summer he called me to ask me out on a date, but I turned him down because I couldn't imagine going on a date with a friend, and I kinda feel bad about that. We were also both in Arrive Alive and Junior Civitans. The last memory I have of him was the Friday before the accident. We were in a class together (can't remember if it was Chemistry or Trig) and a group of us was sent out because the class was reviewing a test that some of us missed and still had to make up. Dave was sent to retrieve us from the lunch room, and on the way back to the class room, he gave me a piggy back ride and I remember rubbing the top of his head. Dave always kept his blonde hair really short in a buzz cut, and I thought it felt neat, you know, when the hair is short and stiff, but still kinda soft.

(Details of the crash coming up...)

On November 1, 1998, I got up and went to church. When I got home, my mom was in the kitchen crying. I immediately thought something bad had happened to a family member in Canada. Then she said, "Ginnie, Dave died this morning." At first I didn't know who she was talking about, because I knew so many Dave/David's and I thought she was talking about a David that lived a few doors down from us. Then she said, Dave Nable. I think I was in shock about it. I just stood there in disbelief. Then she told me he died in a car accident. The rest of that Sunday was a blurr. Come to find out later, he and two of his friends were going hunting at a popular hunting club about an hour from Perry. He was driving his dad's dark green Ranger truck and the friend sitting in the center dropped something that went under Dave's feet. He bent to pick it up and went off the road. He over compensated and flipped the truck. Because none of them were wearing their seat belts, the two friends got thrown out of the truck, but Dave, being 6'3", wasn't thrown out all the way and got pinned under the truck. He was gone before the EMT's got there. The two guys with him tried to get the truck off, but with their injuries they couldn't. Dave told them to tell his parents and sister that he loves them, and to tell all his friends he loves them too. Then he was gone.

The funeral was one of the biggest that the funeral home and church had ever seen. I had a really hard time with his death, but what comforted me most was when I found out that Dave was a Christian, and had accepted Christ as his savior. That was when I stopped crying my tears of mourning, when I realized that, while he was gone from earth, I will see my friend again one day.

My dream last night wasn't sad, it wasn't scary or about the crash. It was similar to the others I've had, that I am living my life as I am now, and he is still alive and we are still close friends. In my dream, Jonathan and I met up with him in Perry, and we were talking, laughing, and cutting up like old times. It was a happy dream. But those are also the kinds of dreams that make you sad and put you in a funk when you wake up.

I can't believe its been 11 years that he's been gone.