My cousin's college-age son has died. He was found dead on the floor of his girlfriend's bathroom, due to either acute alcohol poisoning or aspirating vomit. The coroner will say which eventually.
There's a lot of story about why he was drinking that much and why his friends, his girlfriend, and her mother all left him on that floor. That's for someone else to figure out. I'm just stunned and hurting for his mom, although I didn't know him much except in passing. Our families were close when we were kids, but not so much since we all grew up. We hear from them now only when one more person has died, most recently my uncle -- their father -- whom I eulogized somewhat elsewhere.
It's a tragic loss, despite the kid's own role in the accident that took his life. So many seem to be going that way lately. They're not all good kids, not all bad kids. They fuck up, and never knowing that it could happen, they lose their grip on life. Parents are left to gasp and wish. So much else could have happened.
Nothing to say that makes a difference. But it matters.