Well, it happened :( Good-bye Fred!

It has been 20 years since I graduated from high school and I really did not keep in contact with anyone from high school. I still have family that live in the town I grew up in so I have "heard things" through the years. Except for the occasional Christmas card from the girl that was my closest friend, I had no contact with high school classmates until I joined facebook. There I have enjoyed seeing every one's kids and just exactly what everyone grew up to be.

Last weekend our family got to spend some time with another (very sweet!☺) family that go to our church. As a matter of fact, said friend and Monty have known each other since they were about 3 years old and it has been sooo wonderful that the Lord led them to our church so that we could know her husband and daughter and she and I could become friends as well!! As they reminisced about people from their childhood they mentioned several people they both know that have passed away. I made the comment that if anyone I went to school with has passed I sure never heard about it.

Well, it happened! Wednesday I checked my facebook page just to see posts from several high school classmates expressing their shock and sadness that we lost one of our our.

Fred Solis

Fred was 40 years old, a husband, a father, a Spanish teacher, a coach, and a friend. Several news clips are out about his tragic death like this one and this one.

Just a day after seeing first hand devastation from the tornadoes that ripped through and around my town(thankfully my family and our properties were not affected except for a few hours with no electricity!). Emotions were running high already so the news of the death of a classmate, especially this one, has really hit me hard. It just solidifies the truth that tomorrow is never promised. It immediately brought me back to Perryton Texas as a young teen.

(Fred, Shane, William, and Jorge dressed up in speech class 8th grade 1985)

Eighth grade was the time I got to know Fred the best. You see I was a typical Junior High girl with typical Jr. High crushes. At that time I was totally in love with William and had been since he moved to town in 6th grade. Of course he had NO idea!! That is until 8th grade. I don't even know how but everybody found out that I had a major crush on William. I was teased in the hall and totally embarrassed in the lunch room. As typical Jr. High boys, many of William's friends were extremely mean! Many were but Fred never was!

(Senior picture from the Sr. edition newspaper)

Yes, Fred did some teasing but it was never backed by malice. He was never mean or hateful but always friendly. He never tried to publicly humiliate me but seemed more to sympathize. We became friends.

(after graduation 1990)

Not best friends that hung out together often, but friends. Two people that respected each other as individuals with feelings. Friends that could laugh or talk together in class or at a school function or could have an occasional phone conversation. A friend that showed me exactly what kind of person he was during our eighth grade year and never changed throughout our entire high school years. From listening to the students he taught and the people he worked with as a grown man 20 years later-He was still exactly the same. He obviously made an impact on people throughout his entire life and his absence will be apparent.

Good-bye Fred!