Thoughts on the Passing of a Friend

Someone I knew and grew to like very much died earlier this week. I first met her at a fitness center here in town. I saw her first while she was walking on the treadmill. She told me that her doctor advised her to use a treadmill every day.

We also worked for the same employer, but in different divisions.

She had experienced a problem with her heart, and she was walking for her life's sake.

Each passing day brought new opportunities to talk with this incredible woman.

She often came with a friend, and the three of us would talk about our families.

I learned that two of her children attended the same school as my daughter, and eventually at sporting events I met her children, and even watched them graduate from high school last Spring.

She loved her children very much, and was very proud of them.

I spoke with her last week, and asked about her children. She gushed forth with such love and pride. She was so proud that her daughter was in college, and her son would soon be.

That was the last time I spoke with her. She was just as kind, and bubbling with joy as she always was. Just an incredibly nice person.

Thursday her friend - the one she'd walk with every day told me that she had died of a heart attack early this week. It was then I recalled she had had trouble with her heart.

I was shocked. This woman was so alive, so very much alive that one would never consider that she could ever die.

She was an African American woman about my age, but race and gender never factored into the way she and I got along. She was one of the nicest people I ever met.

May God Bless you, forgive you for your sins, and accept your soul into heaven dear woman. And if I'm so fortunate as to follow you may we meet again.

To her children I can only say what an incredible woman your mother was. You have the joy of being able to carry her memory within you, and I'm sure she'll always be there watching over you.

Despite this comforting thought I am sad, for the world seems just a little less bright with her departure. I'll never forget her.