Bad Days

When talking about bad days Prof. Sexson told us that at some point we would all have to experience being witness to death or to have someone near to us die. Unfortunately I feel like I have already been exposed to quite enough; my senior year of high school was set to be outstanding full of fun, sports, and friends. But that all came crashing down one night(literally) on home coming. It was fall and we had just left the dance, my friend Kelly who was a year younger than me had just had surgery and so he was on crutches, I put my arm around him and said good bye, not knowing it would be the last time. The next morning I woke up at my friend Ian's house to his mom touching me on the back to wake me and Ian up to tell us that Kelly had died the night before in a car accident. I later found out that he had hung upside down in the passenger seat while he bled out.
Three semesters ago as I was working on a job site in Logan Montana, the welding crew from Colorado was up to finish the rest of the chimney caps. Bill was the man welding and I knew him very little, but he told me excited he was to finish this last chimney cap so he could get back home to see his thirteen year old daughter because he had been away for so long doing this job. On the last chimney cap Bill fell from the ladder landing on his head on the concrete pad below. When I rushed over I saw something that no person should have to see(and I'll spare the details) and I froze, everything went blurry and I couldn't hear a word. We were removed from our job and we all went to counseling, but the image is hard for me to erase.
At the end of this last semester while I was hunting in eastern Montana we got word from my mom that my Cousin Travis had died in a motorcycle accident. Travis was an amateur race car driver and was very good,he was always winning and was even awarded driver of the year awards. He was driving what is referred to as a crotch rocket (a really fast street bike) he leaded it too far over going around a corner and caught his foot peg on the pavement.
Now for the latest. At the beginning of the semester a friend of mine Travis Engstrom died in an avalanche in Cooke City Montana. I only knew Travis for a short while, but he was one of those people you are instantly friends with. The worst part is that I knew Travis through a friend of mine whom I had grown up with, his name is Nick. Nick's sister Kelly was married to Travis, Nick's family and I have always been close. Kelly unfortunately had to stand by and watch as her husband was swallowed up by the avalanche, he of course went up the hill for one more run. Travis and Kelly had just had a baby in August his name is Kaden, he was born premature so he could spend a little more time with his dad.

All of these days were bad days. Luckily not all these people died on the same day like in Antigone or think I could very possibly have lost my mind. Is it because all these deaths happen so unexpectedly that we consider them to be more painful? Antigone seemed fully aware that she would die, so to me it begs the question: Does knowing someone is on their way to meet death soften the blow? Or does delaying and dragging death out only prolong misery and suffering for those who are left behind?