People....please take some time and hug your loved ones right now, because you never know when your number's up.
This past Saturday, during preliminary competition at the Drum Corps Associoates Championships (Sr. drum corps) in Scranton, PA, Joel "Lothar" Magnuson -- a mellophone player with the Kilties from Racine, WI, collapsed during the performance of what appeared to be a massive heart attack..passing away either on the way or after arriving at the hospital.
Joel was a member of both the Blue Stars and Kilties back i his jr corps days in the 70s and 80s....and was a charter member when Kilties came back as a Sr corps in 93.
I did not know Joel....my only tenuous connection to the Kilties is a fencing teammate who marched with them in the mid 70s and may actually have known him. Still, he was a drum corps brother...we all went through the same aches and pains, trials and tribulations, highs and lows, sunburning days and freezing nights at practice....and the same thrill from the crowd..in boththe jr and sr ranks.
According ot corpsmates, Joel always said if he died on the field he'd die happy....very few of us get to check out of this world the way we'd like, but he went doing something he loved, surrounded by a few thousand of his closest friends..it can't get much better than that.
The Kilties -- upon realizing they had a man down -- stopped their show and cleared the field...starting their show from the top again once the ambulance had left...they didn;t get the word about Joel's passing until after the official corps photo following the completed performance.
There was no warning...no signs other than Joel not feeling his best that morning...it was all sudden, and the entire drum corps community has been shaken by this.
So take some time and tell your family and friends you love them...I know I will.
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