It happened at the gym

I was at the gym yesterday and a girl I’ll call Sorella asked me about a some girl who used to go to the gym and whom she’d hadn’t seen around lately. Sorella figured that since she’d seen me talking to this girl a few times, I’d know whatever had happened to her. When Sorella started describing the girl, I realized she was talking about… Ivy.

So, I had to tell her the reason why Ivy wasn’t going to the gym anymore: she passed away over a year ago.

I thought I was finished telling people about Ivy’s passing. But it turns out I was wrong. It’s a sad task, of course, but the worst part is having to kill somebody in a person’s mind. Let’s see if I can explain the previous phrase.

Right now, you’re alive in the mind of everyone who knows you. After you die, all those people who don’t know you’re gone will still think they can give you a call or go out with you at any given time. So, in a way, you’re still alive. But then, as people are told of your passing, you start to die in each of those minds. It’s like you die a thousand deaths. Not that people will not remember you or miss you. It’s just that, from that point on, they’ll know that they will never be able to see you ever again. No more phone calls six times a day from you. No more no more Christmas gifts, no more going to the movies. Nothing. It’s over. You’re dead.

So now, thanks to me, Ivy is dead in Sorella’s mind as well.