Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Last summer I wrote several entries about a woman I shared an office with who annoyed me to no end. Her bodily functions were constantly invading my ears and nose, she hummed gospel songs all the time, she frequently took naps in the middle of the day, and she loudly stayed on the phone with her family members throughout the day. I'm a peaceful man at work, and I could not understand why my office mate didn't follow those same rules. Eventually one of my other co-workers left, and I was able to score my own office away from her, where I could be peaceful and quiet without any non work related distractions. And I was happy.

Yesterday morning, I found out that same co-worker died after at least a two year battle with cancer. I had no clue she was battling cancer when I initially started complaining about her, and once I found out I did my best to curtail my own selfishness, sometimes to no avail. Back in February she collapsed at home, and she had been in and out of the hospital since then. Her absence at work caused everyone else to take less time off, and work different hours, but we did it, because we figured she would be coming back. About a month ago, we received word that her health was improving, she was out of the hospital and getting around much better. Then yesterday she was gone, just like that.

My last memory of her was in February. Everyone was gone, and I was on my way out of the door, and she was working at her desk. I peeked my head in her office, and said, "Goodnight Cathy", and she said, "You're leaving me here all alone huh?", and I chuckled and kept walking, not wanting to make any small talk as I was trying to leave. I think that conversation, along with montages of all our interactions, played non-stop in my head yesterday, and even this morning while I swam. It just feels weird walking around an office knowing that someone who used to be there is now dead, and is no longer coming back...But that's life I guess..no pun intended.

3 comments:

Janelle said...

Damn I don't know what to say. Do you regret writing about her last year???

rashad said...

I don't regret it, because she was annoying me, and I wasn't hurting anyone by writing about it. But I think I'd have toned it down a bit if I had known her full story..

Me said...

That was really sad.