There have been too many lives lost this year, be it from both plane incidents, the Palestine-Israel conflict, or death of loved ones. Another one that bites the dust is a girl I knew from Georgia, Taylor. I knew her through Kiel, where they were family friends. I still remember the first time I met everyone from both sides of the family. It was Easter Sunday, and he took me to her house which was just two neighbourhoods away from my house. When she first saw me, she was surprised. She said something along the lines of "I didn't expect you to be Asian cos Chantelle was a black name". It was pretty awkward but she was cool, being a typical teenager. She has twin siblings, a girl and a boy, named Gabrielle and Gabriel. Her mother was Tina, and she was a really nice lady, always inviting me along to their family outings. Although we did not really talk much, my fondest memory of her was me braiding her short hair.
From what I saw on Facebook, she passed away on June 11th in a fatal car accident where a drunk driver hit the car she was in and knocked her out on the street, but I only heard about her death today. I do not dare to imagine how her family is coping with her loss. How are her siblings now? This must be a big blow to Kiel because he treated her like his own sister, and in addition to this death he lost his mother in February to lung cancer.
Death is imminent to everyone, but it came too soon for her. Taylor died because of someone else's fault and although drunk driving is really common in the States, it seems like people never learn from their mistakes. She was only 18, going on to 19 in September. She's only lived a small fraction of life compared with those who will be lucky enough to live to see the day humans conquer Mars. She's of my sister's age and her future was robbed from her by something that could have easily been prevented has the driver decided not to drive under the influence of alcohol.
Rest in peace, Taylor.
