Today we referenced a specific project that we did in 2009. That's 4 years -- a long time for puppies and an entire lifetime for a hamster, but for an adult, it's not that big a deal. It should have especially had an impact on my most enduringly annoying coworker because the client we worked with died the following year. She has no recollection of him at all.
He was quite a guy. A real gentleman. One of life's unsung heroes -- a Vietnam veteran with 4 children and 7 grandchildren, a man very involved with his community and its young people.
Aside from being irritated professionally, that Miss Annoying just counts on me to remember everything we do here at work, I'm saddened personally that his life didn't make any lasting impact on her at all. They intersected, they worked together, he dropped dead and now it's as though he had never been in her life. I know it's her loss, but still, it leaves me feeling melancholy.
This stirs up a lot of emotion in me. I hate that I can't always recall students that have graced my classroom.
ReplyDeleteTry not to be to hard on her, you had a strong connection with him and she didn't. She forgot him but I wonder if there are cases that have touched her emotionally which might have slipped your mind.
ReplyDeleteSome people value connections more because they are able to create them in the blink of an eye and they truly mean something.
ReplyDeleteOthers have more trouble doing that because they lack the certain skills to do so and it's not in their wheelhouse.
(And I know about peeps who get under your skin often for just breathing! LOL I have some of those right in my own family!)
<3