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Today I have to say goodbye to a friend, customer and former co-worker. It's not going to be easy as she was a firefighter and the ceremony will be too difficult to shake from my mind.
I met this particular lady when I was just a teenager just starting my very first "real" job. She was an inspiration to me because she had beat the odds in a very special way. A woman had broken into a "mans job" at a time when "the boys" weren't having it. She became respected for her abilities and loved because of her kind and sweet heart. She had a magic personality that just got ahold of you and gave you no choice but to like/love her.
About 18 months ago she began a battle with cancer that doctor's said was very "treatable" and she was very positive about facing it. She came from treatments with a smile on her face and no matter how she felt, she NEVER turned a friend away. She signed me up to take care of her "new" Yukon on a regular basis about a year ago and fell in love with the idea of having someone to take care of it and keep it looking as good as it could. The people that she worked with worked her shifts so that she would not miss a paycheck and would be able to keep insurance while she battled for her life. Firemen that didn't even know her but only knew of her would bring her cooked meals 3 times a day so that she could get rest while she still took on the effort of raising her 7 year old daughter. It pains me so to see her gone as she leaves this little girl to grow up without a mother.
I have seen this type of ceremony enough already at just the ripe old age of 35 and I still HATE to see the planes/helicopters fly over in the missing man formation. The pain that the man-less horse brings is tough for a bunch of grown men to deal with. I will do my best to keep my head up over the next couple days and get back to what I do but it just wont be easy.
Thanks you ALL for reading this and I hope you all value your friends/family while you can.
I met this particular lady when I was just a teenager just starting my very first "real" job. She was an inspiration to me because she had beat the odds in a very special way. A woman had broken into a "mans job" at a time when "the boys" weren't having it. She became respected for her abilities and loved because of her kind and sweet heart. She had a magic personality that just got ahold of you and gave you no choice but to like/love her.
About 18 months ago she began a battle with cancer that doctor's said was very "treatable" and she was very positive about facing it. She came from treatments with a smile on her face and no matter how she felt, she NEVER turned a friend away. She signed me up to take care of her "new" Yukon on a regular basis about a year ago and fell in love with the idea of having someone to take care of it and keep it looking as good as it could. The people that she worked with worked her shifts so that she would not miss a paycheck and would be able to keep insurance while she battled for her life. Firemen that didn't even know her but only knew of her would bring her cooked meals 3 times a day so that she could get rest while she still took on the effort of raising her 7 year old daughter. It pains me so to see her gone as she leaves this little girl to grow up without a mother.
I have seen this type of ceremony enough already at just the ripe old age of 35 and I still HATE to see the planes/helicopters fly over in the missing man formation. The pain that the man-less horse brings is tough for a bunch of grown men to deal with. I will do my best to keep my head up over the next couple days and get back to what I do but it just wont be easy.
Thanks you ALL for reading this and I hope you all value your friends/family while you can.
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