Whenever W.T. Woodson High School student Mary Klavin felt down during basketball practice breaks last year, Alexander "Alex" Atanasov would cheer her up. He’d have his wrestling practice break at the same time, and he’d joke with her to help her feel better.
But since Alex’s untimely death in car accident two weeks ago, she misses her compassionate, kidder friend.
"It was a privilege to know someone like that," Mary said.
Alexander Atanasov, 18, known as "Alex" to friends and "Sasha" to his family, died March 25 in a car accident in Herndon. The two other people in the accident, the driver and another occupant, also Woodson students, suffered minor injuries. Police are still investigating the cause of the accident.
Yet friends and family remember the Woodson senior as an outgoing, offbeat and caring individual who loved animals and loved life.
"I felt I had given birth to my best friend," said his mother, Kathy Atanasov.
Growing up, Alex was a soccer player until he started working in high school. He was on the wrestling team during his junior year last year, but much of his time was devoted to his jobs. He wanted to buy a nice stereo system. In addition to going to school and working 40 hours a week, he took a class at Northern Virginia Community College.
"He was the kind that never slept," said his mother.
Alex's personal life was busy too. His cell phone would constantly go off, much to his mother’s annoyance. His friends branded his offbeat comments and jokes as "Alexisms."
The morning he died, Alex was running late for school because he took a long shower. He wanted his mother to write him a note to excuse him, but she refused. As he left, his father had a terrible feeling come over him.
Later that evening, as Alex was coming home from work, he got into a car accident. At 7:44 p.m., Herndon police responded to the accident which had occurred on the Herndon Parkway near the intersection at Cavendish Street. When police arrived, they found the vehicle overturned with Alex trapped inside and the other two outside of the vehicle. Alex was transported to by helicopter to Fairfax Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 12:07 a.m.
"It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever been through. I really miss him," said John Robertson, one of Alex's best friends since the seventh grade.
At the funeral, testimony after testimony talked about Alex’s friendliness and sensitivity. Some of his teachers came, including his first grade teacher.
"It was like they never forgot him," said Kathy Atanasov.
Woodson principal Robert Elliott remembered one quotation from a student about Alex, that he makes the gray days shine. As the funeral procession went to the graveside that Saturday afternoon, Elliott recalled that the sun came out and cleared away the clouds and the drizzle.
"Many people thought that was Alex sending us a message," Elliott said.
Alex's friends and family who remain still grieve, but remember a young man who loved people.
"Outgoing, original, and one-of-a-kind," said Robertson, when asked to describe Alex. "He was totally sure of himself."
"Everybody, young and old, was saying the same thing. What an amazing person he was," said Kathy Atanasov.