In my last post, I had said that I was healing from other things aside from my personal internet nightmare. The other thing I had to deal with happened last Thursday, five days ago. I didn’t find out about it until yesterday.

I went into work yesterday morning. All seemed ok, people were busy with this, that or the other thing and it looked like a normal early morning for my workplace. I clocked in, got situated, and started walking back to my work area. A co-worker stopped me, asking me if I had heard about what happened to someone else who worked at our store. No one, I told him, mentioned anything to me. He then dropped a sentence than no rational person wants to hear:

“She was murdered in her home this last Thursday.”

“What?!” I said, though it came out choked, because I had to restrain myself from nearly screaming it out. I waited for him to tell me he was just kidding. This particular guy is awesome to work with, but a joker at heart. But he wouldn’t really kid around like this, I thought. I was right about that, as he proceeded to tell me that not only was she killed, by gunshot, but her daughter as well. This was done by her daughter’s ex, with whom they had secured a restraining order against quite recently. This guy then made sure no real justice could be meted out, by killing himself. The only life that was spared, thankfully, was her daughter’s two-year-old son, who was found crying in another room.

This incident, of course, is affecting all the employees in the building to varying degrees. It affected me greatly. This was an associate with whom I had worked side-by-side with on numerous ocassions. I’ve joked, told stories, argued and talked shop with her for a few years. I even helped train her in the position that she was currently working in when this happened. She was a no-nonsense, gruff lady and wasn’t afraid to speak her mind, even if it hurt to do so. At the same time, she had a warm side to her that spoke volumes of her willingness to care about people and bring out the best in them. She wasn’t hesitant to point out a mistake, and she was also willing to admit to mistakes when she made them. She was a good leader, a great co-worker and spoke to me on occasion as a friend would.

I didn’t give her name here, out of consideration for her family as I do not know their wishes. All I can say is that my heart, thoughts and prayers go out to her family for their loss. I, personally, will miss her greatly.

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