So I just got a call from my mom telling me that one of my closest friends from high school was killed last week when he was hit by a car as he crossed a cross walk. Read about it here He was in grad school at the University of Arizona, and I didn’t even know it.
I met Tim Morris in 6th grade after my family moved to Austin. We went to the same church and through jr. high and high school were close friends. By our junior and senior years we would do everything together. We had a lot of interests in common and generally had fun together. We were even each others default friend date to events and dances.
We went to different colleges and a couple years into college Tim “came out of the closet.” It really wasn’t a surprise to me, but it shocked a lot of our church friends. Perhaps because of those reactions and the stir it caused at our conservative church, Tim distanced himself from us – all of us. The last time I saw him was at my wedding open house nearly 7 years ago. And of all the people I lost touch with from high school, he was the one I always wished I could find again. I wondered if he assumed I condemned him. I wanted to get back in touch, find him, assure him I still wanted to be friends – but as time pasted the weirder it got and I did nothing. I had no clue he was in Arizona. And now he’s dead. I wish I had tried to find him, to let him know his choices didn’t matter to me – and now its too late. I’m sorry Tim.