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A heartbreaking loss© St. Petersburg Times published May 23, 2002 The death of Christopher Fannan of Tampa was as senseless as it is heartbreaking. Fannan, who was 18, was punched in the head Sunday outside a fast-food restaurant, less than a week before he was to graduate from high school and head into the world. We hope his family will find strength in the outpouring of support from Christopher's friends, and that his friends never forget the dreams of a young man who wanted to share life's journey with them. Fannan was in a parking lot with his friends when four men came by. One of them punched Fannan in the head. He was kept on life support Sunday long enough for his vital organs to be donated. More than 200 students from Sickles High School visited the hospital, and Fannan's family was generous in their grief to express their gratitude for the sympathy and support. They also called on the graduating seniors "to carry on and celebrate their . . . joyful rite of passage into adulthood," for that is what their son would want. America's high school seniors will enter the real world in the coming weeks, pumped up by speeches about how the indomitable power of youth will rise to the challenges that await them. It is a privilege they should not take for granted. Not all of their generation -- of any generation -- are given the opportunity to live a full life. Fannan was to join the Army after graduation. "A young man with a giving and loving heart," as his family described him, now will live on in other human beings who -- with any luck -- will experience a longer life because Christopher Fannan's was cut short.
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