You know how you spend lots of time with people at work and at play and then you move on with your lives and you kind of lose contact and umm...twenty five years pass and you don't have a clue where they are or what they're doing and then BAM something happens and it's like no time ever passed? Today was such a day for me. As fate would have it this gal and her hubby walked into the lab today looking for people she knew when she worked at our hospital all those years ago. As I walked toward the couple, my face registered a blank. Then she told me who she was! When you spend twenty nine years in one place, you see a lot of people come and go while sharing bits and pieces of your lives day by day. Back in the day, we all partied together and played with each others' kids and held hands through the hard times, much like me and the current bunch do.

As I walked out to leave the hospital, I paused in the lobby to silently pay homage to the memorial set up for a co-worker who was buried today. Sam saw more pain and suffering working as a paramedic than any of us can ever imagine. His beloved wife died not too long ago after years of disability and illness during which he stood bravely by her side. He retired last year and died yesterday morning of complications from a normally benign disease. The ambulance service was staffed today by folks from other places who showed up to work so that the regular crew could carry one of their own to his final resting place with honor and dignity.

We should all be so blessed.

^j^