Taking the Scenic Route

I found out today a girl I knew in high school died of heart failure, a complication from bulimia.  She had kids and was very loved by a lot of family and people.  I want to go to the funeral but it will be so massively crowded and I haven’t seen her in years, so I will stay home.  They are probably going to have to set up speakers outside the church to accommodate the number of people expected.  From the outside, she had the perfect life.  However, looks can certainly be deceiving.  She was actually a guest on the Dr. Phil show a while back in a “my husband is too controlling” type episode. 

My mom and her Mom were good friends when we were in school, and have remained friendly since.  They run in close circles, but don’t neccessarily hang out together regularly.  She was between my brother and I in school and had some younger siblings. 

She was too young.  Way, way too young.  Wow.  I guess we aren’t invincible.  A heart attack at 34.  Another one of my classmate’s husband had a heart attack at 30.  That is the problem with going to such a small school I guess…you know everybody really well, from about 5 years older, to about 5 years younger.   

For the hometown people reading this, the obit is in the Hutch paper.

eta:  I heard a little more about this situation.  It wasn’t *just* the bulemia.  She had a “barbie complex” and felt driven to be “perfect”.   She did things to excess in her strive for perfection like excercising and jogging to excess and ‘fake bake’ tanning, which has rays that can go through the skin and shut down your kidneys (or liver, can’t remember which).  Kidney failure can cause a heart attack too, as I learned from the death of a family member.  Some friends that saw her shortly before death said she was way, way too brown for her blond hair/blue eyed natural skin color.  So, bulemia was just part of the equation, a symptom of a much deeper issue.

I just feel so sad for her and her family.  To have that kind of compulsion must have been a horrible burden for her.  She must have just been in turmoil inside to do that to herself.  She was so bright and vibrant, so loving.  It is just tragic in every sense of the word.