Search This Blog

Monday, February 8, 2010

In Which It Has Been A Difficult Couple Of Days

And, no. I'm not talking about the ginormous snow storm. I will talk about it... at length and peppered with the usual amount of hyperbole thrown in for added effect at a later date.

But not today.

In the midst of the madness on Sunday came a call. You know the one. The one in which you know something is very, very wrong.

One of my coworkers whom we referred to as Big Paul, passed away. He had a heart attack after shoveling two feet of snow from the remainder of his driveway. I had just taken over the reigns of Master Control from him that morning. He was perfectly fine. His usual acerbic self, regaling me with the unorthodox conversation he had with our new News Director who fortunately has an outstanding sense of humor as well as a healthy perspective about what is and is not worthy of fretting over.

I never thought that would be the final conversation I'd ever have with him. I am in complete shock.

Paul has not always been the easiest person with whom to get along, but his crusty exterior masked a soft heart and considerate soul. And boy did he love his son, affectionately referred to as his "little man". He and Jonathan were extremely close. Jonathan is a Freshman in college living on campus. I can't imagine how devastated he is. It breaks my heart.

Then my boss's Mom had a heart attack and died while he was talking to her on the phone at the same time another co-worker was rushing his wife to the hospital. And if that isn't enough awfulness, I found out a dear former employee's husband was hit head-on Saturday night landing him in the ICU for the next week or so. Thankfully his injuries are not life threatening.

Life is so fragile...

It can change in a matter of hours, minutes, seconds. It's so easy to take life for granted, and then it's gone... Bombarded with all this sadness and loss, I can tell you I held onto my Geo a little tighter last night.

It has been a really rough couple of days. Enough. Enough already.