I didn't see him much while I was growing up because he was so much older than me and my family lives in a different town that all my other family.
He's always had a passion for music, much like me, though we have a bit different taste.
He eventually got married and had two kids but somehow a few years later he got intertwined with drugs and his wife divorced him.
He ended up moving back in with his dad and his younger brother in his hometown.
By that time I was grown up, around seventeen, so I wasn't left out of family conversations when we talked about him and his alleged drug problem.
Last Christmas my grandma invited their family (Nick, his brother, and his father) over for presents and dinner.
My mom got Nick a nice pair of jeans.
Sometime later in February or March I happened to be at my grandma's house when he and his aunt came over for a visit.
I'd just gotten back from Mid-America Pom Pon State competition where my squad took second place.
Nick and his aunt watched the competition video and said they were proud and impressed.
Nick looked like he was doing alright.
He looked healthy, not like a drug addict.
He had a job at my uncle's construction business, doing paperwork I believe.
But my uncle had to let him go because Nick was allegedly stealing money.
I thought that Nick had an alright life.
But I suppose he didn't think the did.
Sometime in March or April Nick took his life.
He stepped in front of a truck.
I like to believe it was a semi because that would kill instantly.
I went to his funeral. It was odd to me because he was cremated.
I feel like if I don't look at the body then they're not really dead.
But he was dead.
At the funeral the pastor addressed the fact of suicide. He said that Nick still went to heaven.
He told a story of another family member of Nicks having something odd happen to her.
She was driving to the mall when she saw some street graffiti that said "Nick" and then a song came on (the pastor didn't say which song) which made her think of him. She then got the phone call telling her about Nick's death. That was odd in itself. But it gets weirder. A few days later she was driving the same route to the mall. When she saw the graffiti again and the song came on the radio again. The same song that reminded her of Nick.
I believe that this was Nick's way of saying that he was alright, and goodbye.
After the pastor told us that story he played "Stairway to Heaven"
I thought that song was kind of cliche but apparently it was one of Nick's favorite songs.
I was back at school a few days later in art class. I was drawing in my art book and kind of thinking about doing a page for Nick, when "Stairway to Heaven" came on the radio. I was a bit suprised at first because I'd never heard that song come on that station before, but there it was.
I cried. Right there in class.
Quietly of coarse.
It made me think of Nick. Maybe he played that song to remind me of him.
I then did an art page dedicated to him.
It was song lyrics.
