The day started out GREAT! Nice morning with the wife, a nice cup of strong coffee, a fairly easy commute -- only 1 near-crash experience. Got to work and everything was copasetic...my Lead Engineer came in and showed me some AWESOME progress on our current game.
And then... I read halfway through an email from my former employer's HR Department. Unbelievably, I was reading a message that looked as if my good friend had died.
I went back and re-read it. More than once, trying to see and hoping to see that the person named -- only referred to by first name -- was someone that I didn't know. Or that, hopefully, my friend was just in a temporary bad position. But through all that active desire of misinterpretation, confusion and misunderstanding I kept re-reading the message, and I still came away with its main message, which was saying that my good buddy passed away.
With a near frantic reaction, I began calling my old-work. Trying to get some clarification. Hoping that the email I read was in error. Call after call, extension after extension and no one picked up their phone. Realize that the friend in question is a young man, who is in good shape and health.
Eventually... finally... I got through to Toni. She is also a friend and worked directly with my buddy. She had little information to depart, but was able to confirm that our dear friend had passed that past Sunday. When I called her, I was choked up and not totally sure that I had read the email correctly -- hoping that I had not. We shared a few nice moments but I could not hold back my grief -- I felt bad to upset her. As we ended our conversation, I could not help weeping.
Today is a sad day for me for I have found out that my good friend Kevin Chan looks to have died in his sleep on Sunday, September 23, 2007.
:*(
And then... I read halfway through an email from my former employer's HR Department. Unbelievably, I was reading a message that looked as if my good friend had died.
I went back and re-read it. More than once, trying to see and hoping to see that the person named -- only referred to by first name -- was someone that I didn't know. Or that, hopefully, my friend was just in a temporary bad position. But through all that active desire of misinterpretation, confusion and misunderstanding I kept re-reading the message, and I still came away with its main message, which was saying that my good buddy passed away.
With a near frantic reaction, I began calling my old-work. Trying to get some clarification. Hoping that the email I read was in error. Call after call, extension after extension and no one picked up their phone. Realize that the friend in question is a young man, who is in good shape and health.
Eventually... finally... I got through to Toni. She is also a friend and worked directly with my buddy. She had little information to depart, but was able to confirm that our dear friend had passed that past Sunday. When I called her, I was choked up and not totally sure that I had read the email correctly -- hoping that I had not. We shared a few nice moments but I could not hold back my grief -- I felt bad to upset her. As we ended our conversation, I could not help weeping.
Today is a sad day for me for I have found out that my good friend Kevin Chan looks to have died in his sleep on Sunday, September 23, 2007.
:*(
posted by Skull_Leader at 4:37 PM
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