Few years back, I showed up at work at 4am in the morning. Our 3rd shift manager looked at me walking in, like “what the hell?”. Yeah, what the hell. Unfortunately, that morning, I had to be the bearer of bad news. I had to let him go. In the corporate world, at least my slice of it, it’s a constant battle, for me, to protect my people; thankfully, it hasn’t been too bad lately. But for a while there, it was like every 6 months. I dodged and dodged and dodged, but this time, my team finally had to take a hit, and that hit, was him. Not exactly the news I like to communicate to someone. If you haven’t seen me come in at 4am, like ever, then… an educated guess would have told you what was coming next. I’d much rather be the bearer of GOOD news, like when I was finally able to get some raises for my peeps. Telling them how much more money they will be getting on their paychecks, especially the few that got A LOT… THAT is what I like to talk to people about. Or how about that one time years ago when we got a bonus; what’s a bonus? Haha… Even the texts I may send about one of my teams, letting my family and/or friends know the good result. For example, to my brother, when the Cubs win, if I’m watching, it’s a simple “W”. I certainly don’t text him an “L” if it’s applicable… why would I want to tell him that?
Well, with the passing of my Mom, being the oldest, I had to reach out to family and friends to share the news. Let me tell you… fun stuff. But, although I hope to never have to do it again, I would do it 100 out of 100 times. Not only because I’m the oldest, and should take the responsibility; I want to take the responsibility. I want to take on as much as I can. I’m just upset that I can’t take on more. I’m just upset that I can’t change what happened. I’m just upset that I can’t replace my Mom… nobody can. We’ll all try though, to step up our games, to keep that tight family intact after this 9.5 magnitude earthquake that just hit us; I’m sure there will be aftershocks too. But it’ll be OK; I know it will… eventually. When will that be? Well, I think the term TBD applies best at this point; I think this TBD will be different for all of us.
The first person I talked to after arrangements were made was her friend of about 50 years. After that, multiple calls to family members on both sides. Thankfully, they were able to take the message and pass it on from there, so I didn’t have to make 50 phone calls. Yeah, just a handful got the word out; did we get to everybody? Probably not. It’s hard to keep things straight right now; it’s been a blur. But yeah, when my cousin who I haven’t talked to in years sees me calling… something ain’t right. Something is definitely not right.
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