Condolences from Gabby Saulsbery

Corey, Corey, Corey. It's 2:43 AM and as we approach the 51st hour of your death, everything is still so surreal, though it's slowly sinking in. You are quite possibly the most ALIVE person I've ever known -- it's so hard to talk about you using past tense. I know, despite the fact that you're not breathing the same air we're breathing, you haven't changed one bit in death. You never changed for anybody or any reason. Once Corey Womack, always Corey Womack.

You know the quote, "It's better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all"? I never understood it until I got the call that told me you were gone. Friendship is definitely a legitimate form of love -- let me tell you, it's better to have loved and lost Corey Womack than to have never known him at all. I met you my freshman year at the first football game into the school year through my cousin and we clicked immediately because you were wearing aviator sunglasses & a Jim Morrison shirt, and I love the Doors. I remember talking to you in the halls one day about how those sunglasses broke, haha...we mourned. I am SO GLAD I met you, it's impossible not to be.

Buddy, with so many dreams yet to be fulfilled, you didn't deserve this but nobody should be blamed. God just wanted you sooner...we all know there were plenty of reasons to; you were sweet and funny and talented and unique and just an all-around astonishing person. I remember standing in line outside the doors waiting to get into homecoming, we were just talking about some things we'd love to do...we said we'd both go hang-gliding before we died. You're doing it in death I'm sure, an angel above us...but whenever it may be that I go, a picture of you is coming with me so that I can say "Before I died, I got to go hang-gliding with Corey."

If you could respond to this I know you and your modest self would deny a bunch of it. You never gave yourself enough credit...if you were any less amazing, I don't know if I'd be up at 3:13AM (this message has taken me a while, ahhJesus!) writing it knowing that I need to be up in 4 hours for a stupid orthodontist appointment. I think your wake is gonna be the first place you've been in a while where you don't start (and WIN!) a dance-off. You're the top, Corey. You truly are.