Remember

A client of mine passed away yesterday. Her 95th birthday was January 7th.

She was one of those people you could sit and talk with for hours...such an interesting life. Grew up in New York. Worked as a high school history teacher for over 30 years. Never married. She was a tough little woman, less than 5 feet tall, had a great sense of humor, a little cranky (to say the least), always told it to you straight...and always had some thing interesting to talk about. Her only living relatives live in New York, but she decided to retire in Arkansas...random, I know. She just up and moved one day...and we were her family here.

Her health went downhill fast. Our last conversation was about a week ago. I think she knew the end was near. She laid on her bed, complaining about the TV stations. I flipped channels trying to find the news for her and landed on Univision. She said maybe she could learn Spanish by watching the Spanish soaps...that made me laugh. We talked about business, her medical bills, her finances, her newspaper subscription. She wanted to make sure everything was in order. We talked about her health, and it was obvious to me that she was feeling worse than usual. She said she knew she would live out the rest of her days right there on that bed. I just sat and talked to her that day. For some reason, I wasn’t in a hurry to leave her room.

I have learned a lot through my job this past year. We’ve lost several clients, and I just think about how I would have never met any of them if it weren’t for my job. Sure, like any job, it has its ups and downs, there are several not-so-positive clients/situations...but honestly I wouldn’t trade all those experiences for anything. Thanks for helping me remember her today.