People's thoughts on grieving someone you didn't even know

It's unlike me to be posting in a forum like this, and I like to think I have pretty "thick skin," so people can be honest in their responses. Here's my situation...

A couple months ago I was surfing the net and came across the story of a young girl (19) who had just died from a rare and aggressive form of cancer. I never met her, I live 2000 miles from where she lived, and I have virtually nothing in common with her apart from a love of skiing. But, since learning about her, I can't tell you how many hours I've spent looking through the photos and videos she posted on social media, an activity that usually leaves me sobbing uncontrollably. Nothing like this has ever happened to me before; I can't even recall being this "broken up" about people I've KNOWN and whom I've lost. And -- let me just get this out of the way -- I'm a male in my 50's but there's no "creepiness" involved here: the best way I can describe it is it's just GUT-WRENCHINGLY SAD to see what a kind, warm, gentle soul she was, and to know that she was taken from this world and from her family and friends, at such a young age.

Nobody likes long posts so I'll leave it at that, but I'm curious if anyone else has had a similar story, or may have some ideas about what's going on. I suspect part of it is just me coming to terms with my own mortality, but that still doesn't answer the question of -- with all the millions of sad stories on the internet -- why THIS person's life and legacy have had such an impact on me. Thanks for reading this far.

 

That’s sad. Does she remind you of anyone? Is it maybe because you have kids or nieces that are a similar age? I’ve learned recently that I can have emotions buried inside me that I’m not aware of, then something happens that brings memories to the surface.