Fallen Colleague

So sad news today. One of the ladies in the Accounting Dept. passed away. She'd been in the hospital... with respiratory failure, I think. I know there were several machines keeping her alive, and her family finally decided to unhook everything. Not sure if she had a living will or not, but I know she hadn't been awake and/or aware for a while.

I know this sort of thing happens every day all over the world, but it's just strange how often you become aware of certain things once they're first brought to your attention... such as with the Terri Schiavo case plastered all over the news for months now. The idea stays simmering in the back of your head, and then suddenly it happens much closer to home.

I know that this woman from our Acct. Dept. recently battled a bout of cancer. In fact, she had only recenlty returned to work when I first started... in November of '03. She was a pretty cool lady. Friendly and easy-going. I don't know what she was like before the cancer... if she was changed at all.

That sort of thing understandably changes a person... and their families. I once worked for a professor who, by all accounts, had been a complete tyrant before his son's accident and hospital stay. This had evidently happened just prior to my being hired on. But the man I came to know was totally laid back... funny... friendly. Ironically enough, my previous position had been in the very ICU at which his son had stayed for a while after his accident. I even remember seeing that professor when he'd come to visit. I always wondered if he remembered me too, and if that had any influence on his decision to hire me.

Either way... it's a small world. I only just found out about an hour ago about the Acct. Lady's passing. They didn't formally announce it yet... probably on Monday. She was one of those peeps that had been around for years and knew the department and her job inside and out. It will be very difficult to fill her itty bitty shoes.