Why does this feel like such a gut punch? I barely followed his career. I was at a roller skating party when I heard and I thought it was a hoax. When I found out it was true it felt surreal and it still does.

When I got home PJ was wearing the Bryant jersey I bought him 17 years ago. The news was on. Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, and 7 other people died in a helicopter crash.

I’ve been witness to unbelievable sadness. A dear friend watching her child die. A young mother fighting for more research on the disease that is ravaging her body. A brother seeing his sister die of brain cancer. A daughter getting the call that her father unexpectedly died. I feel the pain in my heart for all of them.

I don’t know why celebrity death, someone I didn’t personally know, feels so shocking. Maybe it’s because someone like Kobe Bryant seemed utterly invincible.

Life is so fragile. I forget that sometimes. I hate being reminded of it.