Have you ever had the experience of going five, ten, maybe even 20 years and not given a single thought to something, only to find that when it pops up on your radar again, it repetitively re-enters your world in an almost surreal way?

I am having that experience right now with a television show that was incredibly popular when I was in middle school and high school called Beverly Hills, 90210. I arrived in Honolulu, Hawaii a month ago for the International Stroke Conference, and as I was checking in at the hotel, I noticed a blues and jazz club entrance in the hotel lobby – The Blue Note. I did not have anything on the agenda for the evening. My father had just turned 70 in December, and surfing the waves on Hawaii’s North Shore had always been on his to-do list. His flight was due to arrive very late into the night. After checking in, I walked to the kiosk to buy a ticket to The Blue Note, and learned that Vanessa Williams was the singer performing that night!

Excuse me for a moment, but AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

Those who know me best understand that I am quite possibly bordering on obsessive when it comes to music of the ’80s and early ’90s, and nostalgia for that time period, no matter how ridiculous some aspects of those years may have been, runs deep within me. Don’t get me wrong – I savor the present and have a “Carpe Diem!” mindset, and don’t dwell in the past, per se. But I was only a kid then, and man I loved music and TV growing up! I have attended a lot of concerts of ’80s and early ’90s artists and bands, but had not had the opportunity to hear Vanessa Williams perform, even though I very much wanted to do so.

Vanessa did not disappoint. I had the privilege of reliving my childhood through her songs from a serendipitous front table at the base of the stage in the intimate venue of about 120 fans (apparently people had been watching The Super Bowl earlier in the evening?!). Save the Best for Last, Colors of the Wind, The Sweetest Days… but it was Love Is that hit me emotionally for some reason. With the opening notes, my mind immediately leapt back to the Beverly Hills, 90210 soundtrack, the pictures of Luke Perry that some girls had in their lockers, and how much I enjoyed hearing that song on the radio during 1993, a pivotal year as I transitioned from middle school to high school.

After the show, despite being extremely exhausted at this point since it was about midnight in Hawaii and I had flown from North Carolina that day, I was up for hours more, reflecting on middle school days. The joy of newfound independence and responsibility that came with having a locker. The rejection from someone I thought was a friend. Being 5’7″ tall in seventh grade but dancing my heart out at school dances even if I was taller than all of the guys. Learning from some of the most wonderful teachers imaginable. Laughing until I cried. Crying until there were no more tears.

That’s middle school. Or at least, that was middle school before social media and the internet.

I then stayed up even longer, reading online about Shannen Doherty’s battle with breast cancer, and Luke Perry’s acting career since his days as Dylan McKay on 90210. My dad then arrived just before dawn, and we had coffee together while watching the sunrise. What a great start to the trip!

About a week later, on the long journey back to North Carolina, I heard two people in the Seattle airport discussing the television show, Melrose Place. (For those of you who are unaware, it was a spin-off of 90210). Again, strangely, after not giving 90210 a single thought for at least 25 years, there it was in the forefront of my consciousness. Weird? Or just a coincidence?

Then, yesterday I learned, as did the rest of the world, that Luke Perry unexpectedly died at age 52 from a “massive stroke.”

Wow.

Unfortunately, I see young people who are disabled or killed by strokes with relative frequency as a vascular neurologist, and focus much of my effort around advocating for young stroke survivors (thus, this blog). It is sobering when I no longer feel surprised when a young person arrives in an emergency department with a stroke. The media is treating stroke in young people as “rare,” but it is not.

And yet, for some reason, despite being fully aware that stroke can strike the young and the old, I was surprised when I heard this tragic news about Luke Perry.

Why?

Perhaps it’s because 90210 had already been floating around in my mind since hearing Vanessa Williams perform Love Is.

Perhaps it is because I thought of my middle school-aged self during Luke’s reign on 90210, and I was so young, naïve, and innocent then. I had never seen death. I may not have even known what a stroke was then.

Or perhaps I felt stunned because Luke wasn’t really 52 in my mind. His presence on our television screens was one of youth, and that youth persists in my visual memory of him. He stayed young, even as time moved on off of the set.

Luke’s death is different than many celebrity deaths, because it touches on a vulnerability. Someone still in his prime years, young, and in a way, forever young in our minds, had a stroke. If it happened to him, it could happen to anyone.

But then again…he was 52. Is that young? Yes, I think it is, but it’s not 20 (although young stroke survivors know that one is never too young to have a stroke, but hopefully you will take my point here). Luke Perry was 52. And he died from a “massive stroke.”

And then another thought occurs…I was only in middle school when he was on billboards, in commercials, and on television; I was most definitely on the younger end of the 90210 generation, but despite being on that younger side, a few months ago I turned 40! How is that possible? 90210 (in its original form) was only on TV a few years ago. Was 52 young to me when I was 20? It certainly seems to be young now that I’m 40.

Wait. About the original 90210 being on TV only a few years ago. Make that…28 years ago that it premiered. Where did that time go? There has been much to show for it, but still…wow.

Luke’s death forces members of a generation to face the reality that we may feel young and act young, but we are getting older. Yet, it also demonstrates in the harshest of ways that people who are young can lose their lives very quickly to stroke. I have often written on The Stroke Blog that tomorrow is not guaranteed to anyone. I stand by that assertion.

I sincerely hope a day will come when we can rid the world of this awful disease.

Rest in peace, Luke Perry.