Meet the Nieratkos: A death

By Alex

We interrupt Chris’ life of comedy with a moment of seriousness. I found out the other day that a person I knew in a former life hanged himself. His name was Shannon McFadden. He was my age. Many that know New Jersey skateboarding knows the guy used to kill it on a skateboard, even recently I heard he had been killing the KCDC miniramp. But it’s safe to say that skateboarding was his most redeeming quality.

I don’t have much to say on this matter. Him and I lost contact many years ago. When I ran into him last I told him a close friend of ours, Chris Marshall, had died. He said, “Bummer. So what else is going on?” I walked away and said I would never speak to him again.

And I didn’t.

But we had some good times early on and he was an amazing skateboarder. Funny how skateboarding can bring people together and make you look past people’s shortcomings. At least when I was younger it could.

Not quite sure what I want to say here. I wanted to be as cold as Shannon was when I told him Chris had died. But I don’t have it in me. I feel bad for him and his family and his sister who found him.

Me and Crissie are so focused on the baby coming and entrenched in the idea of life that this death has blindsided me. I did not expect to feel this surge of emotion. A few years ago when we were shopping for a home we visited a house where an elderly couple had passed away over the previous years and their family had ransacked the home. Old photos and slides lay in puddles of water in the basement, an entire life, documented and strewn on the floor. It broke my heart.

Shannon had no obituary. No viewing. None that I can find…

I used to shoot a lot of photos of Shannon 10, 15 years ago. Here are a few that I found. They say the internet never forgets. So may these photos linger on.