20% Fatality Rate

So I have this photo composite of the my graduating High School Class on the wall in my office; all 117 of us!  Little town with a little High School in southeastern Michigan--it was a true Flat Rock!

 When I was elected at my senior class vice-president back then, I had no idea that it would secure for me a place of honor in the middle of this "august" composite, but it still feels kinda cool.

 And it is also a bitter sweet collection.  I can name 14 boys in this portrait that I would have called friends.  Boys, for the most part, that I grew up with from elementary school on, and already 3 of them are dead.  Toss me in the mix and that a mortality rate of 20% as the rest of us enjoy our 54th year.  So tonight I remember these friends in particular.

 Randy Brown, 1961 - 2015

Victor Green, 1961 - 2012

Zoli Naki, 1960 - 2002