Good bye my friend

I called one of the maintenance yards I deal with every day, yesterday.  After a brief discussion with the supervisor about the problem, he asked me "Did you hear about the trouble in the yard?"  No, I answered.  He told me that Pat Webster had died on Friday.  Shell-shocked, I listened to details about how her  daughter called the office because she couldn't reach her mother.  Two of the crew went to her apartment, but Police and rescue were already there.  She had died.  "You knew her, didn't you?' he asked.  Well DUH. I had spoken to her on a regular basis for almost 28 years.  She was my lifeline to emergency repairs in the South District and over the years we chatted about children and grandchildren vacations and the news of the day.  I always knew when I talked to her about the crisis du jour at some branch that she would help me to get someone out to fix it. One thing that the supervisor who told me of her passing said was " she didn't even get to her retirement"  This statement was the saddest of all the things he told me.  She did enjoy her job and the camaraderie of  what she did, but to work and never really get to enjoy the fruits of your labor seems so unfair.  I knew that life is not fair, but I still have a school-kid's version of fair and not fair rolling around in my head.

To calm myself, I turned on Pandora on my cell phone.  This is the song that came on

Oh we never know where life will take us
We know it's just a ride on the wheel
And we never know when death will shake us
And we wonder how it will feel

So goodbye my friend
I know I'll never see you again
But the time together through all the years
Will take away these tears
It's O.K. now
Goodbye my friend

I'd see a lot of things that made me crazy
And I guess I held on to you
You could've run away and left, well maybe
But it wasn't time and we both knew

So goodbye my friend
I know I'll never see you again
But the love you gave me through all the years
Will take away my tears
I'm O.K. now
Goodbye my friend

A life so fragile, a love so pure
We can't hold on but we try
We watch how quickly it disappears
And we'll never know why

But I'm O.K. now
Goodbye my friend
You can go now
Goodbye my friend

This song, by one of my favorites Karla Bonoff, was sweetly appropriate comfort yesterday. So, goodbye my friend.  Thank you for being a calm presence in a sea of occasional turmoil.  I will miss you.  Your loss is keenly felt.