A friend's passing

A friend and a colleague passed away this past week from a fairly rapidly progressive disease. She was a kind person who always gave her all at work. Over the last several months before she left work, she was getting progressively weaker and more tired but continued to do her best every shift. Her death, although not unexpected with her illness in mind, is still a difficult event to deal with. She was not much older than I am now and has a child roughly the same age as my oldest. These types of deaths, I find, are sometimes the most challenging to deal with as these people are my contemporaries. They are much like me and it hits home even more profoundly. In some sense, we expect and sometimes applaud the final release of our elderly friends and family and view their passing as a blessing. But when the person dying reminds us of ourselves, it brings on a different set of feelings. Having said that, I believe that every life and death leaves a legacy. Her legacy will certainly be kindness and compassion. She was able to see the positive in others and I hope that I can carry on this same legacy in honor of her.