I’m writing a much more serious post this morning because something serious happened yesterday that is hard to get off my mind. When you watch the news and you hear about shootings that occur, many times you hear it so often, that you don’t give it a second thought because it’s either not in your immediate area so that it doesn’t affect you, or you don’t know anyone nearby where it occurred. However, sometimes, sometimes, you know know the victim(s) and others involved personally whether it be as friends, coworkers, or casual acquaintance that you might see on a semi-regular frequency for whatever reason.
Monday, November 24, was certainly an emotional day for many reasons. I had watched the news stations for information, just to get a glimpse of the story, but all I could do was sit and watch the everything unfold in Ferguson. I know that many have strong opinions on the results of the grand jury verdict on that case, and I refuse to comment on that having once served jury duty on a grand jury myself but not on criminal proceedings of that magnitude (thankfully so). Overall, I am not sure how I feel one way or another about the verdict because I do not know all the facts that was presented to the jury to make an educated opinion and that is my stance. This post isn’t about Ferguson, although I do express my sympathies to the Brown family for their loss as no one should lose their child before their time…
Bringing me to the reason for writing this. When I got into work yesterday, my coworkers first announcement to me was that a former coworker that I was friendly with had died. They didn’t know details and initially I had believed that they were pulling my chain, but it was busy and we got to work and the subject was dropped. Later in the evening, when it was dead, I jumped on Facebook to look at my timeline on my personal account to see comments from another coworker that had moved away remarking on the said coworker’s story and I was like, This was for real…? After speaking with her for a few minutes, trying to get more information as my one coworker thought perhaps she had been sick, I managed to pull up a news article and was I floored.
While I wasn’t friends with this person, I was friendly with her. We didn’t hang out outside of work, but we did talk at work, bitched and ranted about the company, the management, customers. The usual things you needed to get that steam out to get on with the day without fully exploding. She was nice enough, even if I wasn’t her family’s biggest fan. She was certainly a huge help in being a buffer between us and her mother, for sure, when she would come in complaining about one thing or another.
What I learned, she was murdered early Monday morning. By her own boyfriend, recent fiance. He had shot her in the head before killing himself. And if that wasn’t enough, her ex-boyfriend, who is one of the sweetest people you can meet, was the one that found them as they lived with him.
Thanksgiving is a difficult holiday. Last year, one of our neighbors died just days before from a massive aneurysm and not seeing his face on the street everyday, walking his dog and smoking his cigarette for the past year has been an odd experience for me. With this news, I can’t say that I’m not happy that we’re doing everything fairly low key with the cooking and not bothering with going overboard on a full turkey and sticking with just turkey cutlets and the sides. It’s hard to have a thankful and giving spirit with so much hurt and loss around you. While I don’t have any deaths in my family, everyone has moved away out of state so it is only us left locally.
So for all of you with your families together, give each of them a hug and kiss. Thank them every day. Not just this Thursday. You shouldn’t need a holiday to remember what you are thankful for. You shouldn’t need tragedy to remember that you have so much good either. Be peaceful, be kind, remember that life is short and that things can change in a blink. It doesn’t need to be by the trigger of a gun. There are so many other catalysts out there that could cause the same result such as drinking and driving – in which case, if you are drinking at your Thanksgiving dinner this week, hand the keys over to someone who isn’t drinking then go have a blast.
Much love,
Meeko