She’s Not Coming Back
While working at Accenture, I worked with a woman named Maria. She sat in the cube directly across from me. She had a terrific sense of humor and we often enjoyed making each other laugh during the long workday.
One Friday morning, she called in sick. The following Monday she also did not come into work and another co-worker of mine Sarah and I became worried. We called her house to see how she was feeling and her sister answered.
Her sister said, “She’s not coming back. She felt sick with the flu on Friday and on Saturday morning drove herself to the emergency room as she felt worse. They did not find anything wrong and sent her back home. On Sunday she awoke and could not get herself out of bed so our brother drove her back to the ER. They diagnosed her with bacterial meningitis and she passed away last night.”
By mid-week, everyone in our department was attending half day meetings with a company provided grief counselor. We shared how we were feeling and there were many tears shed in the room. On Friday of that week, we all attended her funeral.
To help everyone feel at peace, Sarah took up a collection to have a tree planted at the Chicago Botanic Garden in Maria’s memory. Once it was planted, we all met up at the Botanic Garden to share our memories of Maria and to say goodbye.
As we are in Fall in Chicago, and leaves are rustling in the wind I was reminded yesterday of Maria.
Note: this story first appeared on my LinkedIn profile page.
