Nov

Death still stings

Some posts are easy to write. The news story that’s been on your mind all day, or the conversation with a friend or family member, sparks the mind and the fingers find their natural rhythm on the keys. This is not going to be one of those kinds of posts.

Our work crew is a small, but fairly tight, group of people. Working the arrivals and departures at a regional airport can be hectic, and to get the job done right you have to function like a team - helping pick up bags, get wheelchair passengers down, keeping the traffic flowing smoothly - or it doesn’t work. At our station, for all the peccadilloes and personalities that each of us bring in the door daily, we do function like a team, or an extension of one’s family. When something happens that affects a single member of the team, it affects all of us, and right now, we’re all being affected by a couple of recent deaths.

One of these was a murder of a family member by another family member. Mental illness was a factor in the case, but that doesn’t make life any easier for the survivor, who now has to go on without two members of their family.

The other was an unexpected tragedy. A phone call saying something didn’t feel right, then nothing. A call to the employer - can you find them? - later becomes the confirmation of the worst: a heart attack becomes a fatal heart attack, and the sobs can be heard over the cacophony of jet engines, Muzak and crowd noises.

In the time that has passed since the murder, we’ve been witness to moments of intense grief. In the other case, the family of the deceased has treated the fiancé like dirt - down to fighting over who got the plants from the funeral - and made what was already bad into something worse.

Regardless of anything else, both of these people are heading into the “most wonderful time of the year” with open wounds, and both have to be back in the workplace with the professional smile because of economic realities. Paul tells us that death will be swallowed up in victory and we know this and believe it, but its a truth that is not easy to tell someone in the throes of loss. When you get a minute, please pray for these co-workers of mine.

Tags: Death, Tragedy, Work