Archived News Item

Flashes in the Night

The story goes like this.

BHS junior Nic Rotolo, a skilled athlete and popular student, died last night at an ice hockey game in San Jose. Details are not available, and the cause of death, though presumed natural, is not yet known publicly or perhaps at all. Some kind of cardiac arrest is rumored. By all accounts it was very sudden and unprecedented; Rotolo was well-liked and a strapping, healthy youth.

I did not know him, and will not pretend to offer counsel to those who did.

Grief management was available all day, and a memorial has been set up. Today had an air of unreality, and one thought certainly went through the mind of everybody: That even the young are mortal, and between Thursday and Friday, tragedy can come like blinking an eye.

It was a beautiful day.

— Brandon