Nostalgia
Last night, I had the big urge to watch The Thing Called Love, River Phoenix's last completed film. I loved him and Samantha Mathis together. Actually, I love River Phoenix, period. Sad to remember that he's been gone for over 15 years. Sad that he turned to drugs to soothe his malaise.
I had a friend who passed away from an overdose. I had known him since I was thirteen. He asked me out on a date. I remember talking to him on the phone and he asked me what I wanted for our date, I said a black rose (thinking it's impossible to ever find one). And what does he show up with when he came to pick me up...a single black rose. Funny enough, that was our first and only date. We remained friends throughout the years but as we grew up, lost touch with each other. Moved on. We saw each other very sporadically throughout the years, until the week before my wedding we saw each other again (thanks to a mutual friend). Sad to say that it was me that dropped the ball after that day. He'd invited my husband and I to his house for movie nights but I would decline feigning busy-ness or ill.
A year and a half later, I get a phone call from my best friend telling me that our friend was dead. In shock, we had speculated that perhaps it had been suicide. We never received a reason...and his death and the truth faded into the background.
A year later, my best friend comes back into town for a visit. We go for breakfast. We invite two other friends and as the meal progresses we get to talking. Our friend who passed came up and we finally all learned the truth about his death. The funny thing is, all four of us knew him...but it was all a different facet of the person we knew. For example, I was totally clueless about his drug and party lifestyle, while my other friend knew him from the party circuit etc. We all pretty much came to the realization that we really didn't know the real him at all and that we were all only privy to a side of his personality and not the whole.
And what does this have to do with River Phoenix, well, after reading the article in Details that was published shortly after his death, the things that people said about River really reminded me of my friend. So in memoriam...
I had a friend who passed away from an overdose. I had known him since I was thirteen. He asked me out on a date. I remember talking to him on the phone and he asked me what I wanted for our date, I said a black rose (thinking it's impossible to ever find one). And what does he show up with when he came to pick me up...a single black rose. Funny enough, that was our first and only date. We remained friends throughout the years but as we grew up, lost touch with each other. Moved on. We saw each other very sporadically throughout the years, until the week before my wedding we saw each other again (thanks to a mutual friend). Sad to say that it was me that dropped the ball after that day. He'd invited my husband and I to his house for movie nights but I would decline feigning busy-ness or ill.
A year and a half later, I get a phone call from my best friend telling me that our friend was dead. In shock, we had speculated that perhaps it had been suicide. We never received a reason...and his death and the truth faded into the background.
A year later, my best friend comes back into town for a visit. We go for breakfast. We invite two other friends and as the meal progresses we get to talking. Our friend who passed came up and we finally all learned the truth about his death. The funny thing is, all four of us knew him...but it was all a different facet of the person we knew. For example, I was totally clueless about his drug and party lifestyle, while my other friend knew him from the party circuit etc. We all pretty much came to the realization that we really didn't know the real him at all and that we were all only privy to a side of his personality and not the whole.
And what does this have to do with River Phoenix, well, after reading the article in Details that was published shortly after his death, the things that people said about River really reminded me of my friend. So in memoriam...