In Memory of

Class of 1994
Date of Passing Aug 18, 2010

Elmer Aleman moved to Glendale Heights when I did; for the longest time I’ve been the angry young man -- still am in some ways but what Elmer did in the recent years that I regret. I wish I didn’t call him a bastard and look at my photo where I had my middle finger photo from my first ever show. He really had no idea what I am in the recent years; but what makes this very unnerving for me is he died almost a year apart from the day when my far-off friend Kristov Kemp did as he was also 35 years old at the time in 2009. What’s tragic about Elmer’s passing according to David Delemancha is he left behind a daughter and passed in his sleep -- peaceful way to go but at that age. As Earthen Grave would sing, “Death is another word.” And with my occupation, Mortality is a subject matter I had explored as an author and Edgar Allan Poe wrote about a premature burial. I am trying to keep from being dark when I say this but when you had a friend who respected you when your career started dying a year after he came to your apartment -- you wonder where an author like Edgar Allan Poe would emerge. Elmer’s passing -- came the novelette Greetings From The Afterlife. It would been cool to see Elmer go to Richmond with me in 2012 but that trip I went alone; but I thought about Elmer’s death on the way to Richmond, and what Poe went through burying Virginia Clemm as I had to bury my grandmother almost a year later and Ted from Tourniquet having to bury both his parents -- then having to bury my grandfather in recent years. Then my friend Damon Derleth having to bury April -- death is all around us..