Celebrating Life and Mourning Death all in the same day

Celebrating Life:

This weekend was my son's 3rd birthday celebration.  But yesterday, July 30th, was my son's actual birthday.  Over the weekend family came over and we did a small family only party with games that demonstrated how smart Jordan really is.  Each game required the guests to guess how many items Jordan could name correctly.  The closest guess won.  I would hold up toy cars and ask him the color, he got 90% of them right. How many letters in the alphabet do you think he named correctly?  How about 18!  That even surprised me!  He named 7 out of 9 shapes, and out of 50 Disney characters he named about 27 right off the bat.  After that we ate cupcakes (Jordan still refuses to eat them) and opened presents.  He was a lucky kid this year.  He got some fun Mexican souveneirs from my mom's trip to mexico, a whoopie cushion (oh man he loves that thing), Duplo Legos, a big blow up toy that he can crawl inside, Toys from the new Disney Planes movie, and a little crochet Toothless the Dragon plushie that I had my friend make for him.  After that we went to eat some fantastic family style Italian dinner at Buca di Beppo.

Of course, Monday was his real birthday and we did a small celebration for him between the 3 of us.  My husband surprised his daycare class with 16 Ironman cupcakes to celebrate his birthday!  Then after work we all went to Target to pick out another airplane from the Disney Planes movie and a hot wheels car.  We got home and had movie night, complete with nachos and popcorn (popcoyts as Jordan called it).  The night ended great.  We sent Jordan to bed as we watched the new episode of America's Got Talent.

Mourning Death:

Halfway through AGT, I read an article on Orlando Sentinel's website about a co worker who had died.   To me a coworker is 1 of 60,000 people.  So at first I was sad that it happened but I didn't really look much into it.  Then as i read on, i noticed that it said a certain intersection that i passed by on my way home.  I saw a totaled grey SUV that was smashed up on the roof and the passenger side, as if it flipped.  I didn't see any ambulances, no debris, only a Florida Highway Patrol cop and 3 more of them driving the opposite direction of me a mile further down the road.  The accident happened to be right next to a fire department, so naturally I think - "oh thank God, they wrecked right next to the paramedics, they are probably okay".  But according to this news article the person was NOT okay, was air lifted and died in the hospital.  Then I read his name in the article.

My heart dropped, eyes welled up, I didn't just know him, I was friends with him.  I joked with him, laughed with him, talked about life with him.  He was a huge part of our "family" at work.  he really held a lot of our operation together.  He touched so many lives on a daily basis.

What saddens me is that I saw him briefly just that morning.  I said "Hello" as I passed by him quickly to get to the time clock.    I knew he would want to hear about Jordan's 3rd birthday celebration over the weekend, but i knew i would have time to tell him later.  he looked tired and upset, so i did not want to bother him.  I should have bothered him, but since i didn't my last memory is that quick hello.

Going into work today was very tough.  Everyone cried, hugged.  Come people found out the minute they walked into work and broke down into tears.  you could tell that this man touched everyone's hearts.  We kept our smiles for our guests, but deep inside we are all mourning our loss.  tomorrow, I am sure it will start all over again, as more and more begin to learn about how we lost our friend.

Life is precious!  Don't just celebrate life on birthdays.  make sure you say more than just a quick hello to those you love.  I wish i could go back and say "thank you for making me laugh when i was struggling!  Thank you for always being a great team  player on a tough day, and for making my job just a bit easier by helping me out."  I hope he knows how many people loved him!  We lost not just a great so-worker, but a great friend!