Death

Yesterday I found out that my astronomy teacher from high school passed away. Mr Brabec, he was indeed one of my favorite teachers. I remember going home after the first day of school and telling my mom about all my teachers (I still do this even now that I am in college) and my description was this,
" he has beach blonde hair almost touching his shoulders but bald on the top, he wears glasses and earrings and he is always smiling".
That last part almost makes me want to cry "always smiling", is he not smiling anymore? It's a weird thought to think that he died yesterday and yet the world kept on spinning, kept on living, just kept on. Is that what death is just a period to the end of someones story? Is it at all that simple. How do you grieve something like this. I remember him telling me that one day my hair looked good :) and the day I was broken up with and couldn't stop crying, he let me sit outside of class. He had a heart and he had a family.
My theory is that no one really leaves this existence because stories like this one keep them alive and as long as I keep telling it he won't be out of existence and into some empty space. I am a religious person and do believe in God but not everyone does and I don't even know if he did. So that is why I say existence because I have to believe that everyone at least believes we are in that.