For Heath and Heather

Heath and I met in high school through the Drama Club. We were in a play together, Carnival! He was Marco the Magnificent, a magician and one of the male leads. I played a puppet named Carrot Top and sang a song called “Fairyland.” (Hey, it was a good part, even if I did wear a wig made of red yarn.) Even though he was an underclassman and I was a senior, I admired Heath. Not only was he a fine actor, but he had a full moustache. In high school, only a handful of guys really had the hormones to pull that off.

Once, after I graduated, I returned to Western High as a substitute teacher and saw Heath perform a particularly funny scene from a play called Private Wars. Later, while taking an acting class in college, I wanted to make sure my final project would bring down the house. I called Heath and he told me the name of the play. A classmate and I nailed the scene and I aced the course. In hindsight, I should have probably called Heath and let him know, but we fell out of touch.

Heath had a sister named Heather. I knew her, too, but she was a year behind me at school and we weren’t close. We traveled in social circles in high school that had a slight overlap. I don’t have many specific memories of Heather, but I do recall that she was pretty, cool, and had a great smile. I never had the nerve to ask her out, but that was generally true of almost every girl at Western High.

Heather died on Thursday. She was 42.

I learned about her passing on Facebook from someone who had stayed friends with her after all these years. Heather had been diagnosed with liver cancer when she was 28. I never knew.

For a third of her time on this planet, Heather faced a death sentence every morning and told it to bugger off. Her adult life was built around a level of courage I’m not sure I can comprehend and a lack of fairness I will never understand. It would be inappropriate for me to even attempt a eulogy of Heather, as we were acquaintances at best – and that was more than 25 years ago. I can only say that I wish I would have stayed in contact with Heath, because maybe, just maybe, I would have had the opportunity to know Heather better. She was clearly an amazing person, and those of us who lost touch with her missed out on something special.