by It’s alarming to open up a web browser to discover you died on July 1, 2009:
My beloved Janna dealt with the untimely reporting of her death, and now it was my turn to face a false Grim Reaper as I witnessed my own obituary notice.
It’s a curious and odd feeling to read about your death from afar and to learn of the loved ones your shared name doppelganger left behind.
Having a name like “David Boles” is not rare — but adding that precious “Dubya” to create “David W. Boles” was, I thought, a bit of a hallmark and a branding unique to me.
How wrong I was.
The other “David W. Boles” — that one of Beaver Creek, Ohio — was a truck driver who, as you can see below, perished in a fiery crash in a head-on collision on Interstate 10 near Loxley.
As David W. Boles’ family mourns their tremendous loss, I cannot help but feel a little more mortal this morning as I wonder how the stakes of living can be so random and perversely cruel.
Rest in peace, other dwb. We hardly knew you.
Did you send flowers, Gordon?
Of course! Virtual ones, naturally.
Love that, Gordon!
That has to be a bit surreal to see your monniker in print and in an obit to boot…rest in peace of course to the other “name doppelganger” and kudos to sending flowers, virtual of course, as they last longer…
It was certainly a bit mind-blowing to read, for a week, the news of my death and then all the gory details. It was grounding in a humbling sort of way…