Condolences from Chris Futia

In the very short time I knew Corey of a little more than a year and a half he managed to leave a lasting impression on my personality and beliefs as a person, a friend, and a sibling. And although I wasn't his best friend I'm glad that I did get to know him as a good friend. Looking back I'm glad that I am able to recall quite a few memories of him within the short time we knew each other in this world.

I was lucky enough to meet Corey through tech crew my freshman year at Colonie Central High School. One of the first things I recall about him is that all my freshman year he called me "stupid freshman", and he laughed when i responded to being called that even when I got another nickname he would still call me that as though it were my real name, we both found it pretty funny. I also remember the day i got sent home from tech crew for having a mach battle with stools and rulers in the art room with him last year. I also think of the countless times we went to the mall in a big group last year before tech crew started. Another hilarious memory of him is the time he told us the joke about how the juice companies had made up the "hollow cost" it was the funniest joke I ever heard. One of my most recent memories I have of him is giving him a ride home one day shortly before Christmas 2006, and being it was the holiday season traffic was awful so the trip to take him home was extra long, I feel blessed to have received that time with him and even though it was only about 45 minutes i feel now as thought its my most favored of memories, because we just laughed and joked the whole time and he had my mom and my older sister cracking up laughing at his jokes. I remember talking about how he camped out for his Wii and my mom offered him $300 for his because her and my stepdad were going crazy looking for one for my stepbrother for Christmas. As we all know Corey loves his Nintendo and he said that he wouldn't sell his Wii for 3 million dollars. And as I type this I realize one of the greatest tragedies of everything about the loss of Corey Womack at such a young age, its the fact that we will never get to here him talk about Super Mario Galaxy or Super Paper Mario or Mario Party 8, but we all know he would've never let us here the end of how great these games are, but I know that they'll have a Wii in heaven just waiting for Corey.

Corey's death was tragic but let us never forget who he was and how he taught us all how to be good friends and good people, but first and foremost let us remember the laughter and joy he brought into those lives that he touched. My only regret is that we didn't spend more time together outside of school especially since he said he thought we ought to.