overwhelming sadness

My wife and I both work at a University. She is an instructor and I work in Student Affairs. Our paths cross when she refers the "bad" students to me for failing, cheating, missing class, etc. She had a student last semester though that I didn't have the pleasure of meeting. She would come home and tell me all about "Chester". You see this was his nickname that he chose to go by, one he said he picked because you would never forget him. She had many stories about Chester and it is rare that I know one of her students by name that isn't one of the "bad" ones. She has over 100 students in each class each semester and when she mentions them it's usually not by name. I heard stories of how she would tease him about his name, they would talk World Cup, he even knew one of the players on our local Arena Football League team who had the same last name as my wife. We have season tickets to the AFL and he kept telling her that he was going to get his autograph for her. They joked about how the player was my wife's long lost cousin. He even wore a kilt to the midterm because he wanted to distract his fellow students from the test. She joked with him that she didn't want to know if he was wearing it "authentically". I heard all these stories, she had a fondness for this kid, he was her buddy, he who would come in early and stay after class, hang around during break, just so they could talk. They talked about all kinds of things and laughed and shared many stories and experiences.

Yesterday I got a call from his roommate. Chester was found dead. He ran out of insulin and fell into a diabetic coma. His roommate is distraught, blames himself for not being there. It is a tragic, senseless loss. My wife is upset, I even feel sad for this kid that I never met but who I heard so much about. I can't even imagine what his mother is going through. She told us that he called her on Friday night and told her he was out of insulin and she told him to go to the emergency room. When she hadn't heard from him on Saturday she called the sheriffs office and they found him dead. This mom sent her kid off to college and within 2 months he was dead. It sounds so preventable but yet he is gone. I can't even imagine what his family is going through right now.

You were right Chester, you will never be forgotten. Rest in peace.