Sad day...a friend and coworker died today.

[Robert Hall]

It's one of those things that remind you of your own mortality, I guess...a coworker and friend of mine who was only slightly older than I (37) died today at work... they believe it was a heart attack. Found him slumped over in his chair in his cube.

[Sixty8panther]

Wow, my condolences to you and his family. 37 is way too young.

My 70-something neighbor George's wife died last fall and over this past weekend our other neighbor and WWII vet died as well. George is super depressed because he lost a lot of friends last year as well as his wife of almost 60 years and now his only long tmie neighborhood friend passed away.

Mean time Mr. Aldrich will be missed by all.... he was a super nice guy and looked healthy as a horse untill recently. Reminded me a lot of my paternal Grandfather who passed away from Altzheimer's in 1993.

[Robert Hall]

Wow, my condolences to you and his family. 37 is way too young. 

My 70-something neighbor George's wife died last fall and over this past weekend our other neighbor and WWII vet died as well. George is super depressed because he lost a lot of friends last year as well as his wife of almost 60 years and now his only long tmie neighborhood friend passed away.

Mean time Mr. Aldrich will be missed by all.... he was a super nice guy and looked healthy as a horse untill recently. Reminded me a lot of my paternal Grandfather who passed away from Altzheimer's in 1993.

Yes, it was freaky...he had gone to lunch with myself and few other coworkers on Friday... we were planning on going skiing together with a few friends next weekend. I'm still shocked about it.

[NOS2006]

That's insane. My condolences go out to you and those affected.

[Nick]

That's horrible...reminds me of a story my mom was telling me. She was trying to hook up her mom, my grandma because she has been widowed for about 20 years now...(grandpa died 2 days before my parent's wedding due to MS.)

So yea, anyways, my mom tried to hook her up with this guy she knew from her work. He was unmarried also. They talked on the phone and the two of them really hit it off. Keep in mind this guy was in perfect condition...I think he was in his 70's. Was very active and in perfect health. They planned to meet up a few days later...a day or so after they talked he suddenly died of a heart attack. It was very random and unexpected as well.

But still...dying of a heart attack at 37?! Wow...just wow...you and anyone else affected has my sympathies...

[mute]

same ive experienced enough losses over the last year to fill santas list twice so i know where your at condolences man and take cre of yourself everyone we want ya aaround for a while longer

[Robert Hall]

That's horrible...reminds me of a story my mom was telling me. She was trying to hook up her mom, my grandma because she has been widowed for about 20 years now...(grandpa died 2 days before my parent's wedding due to MS.)

But still...dying of a heart attack at 37?! Wow...just wow...you and anyone else affected has my sympathies...

Yeah, we had occasionally joked at work about the when the project would going to kill someone...didn't think it would literally happen. Though I have another colleague who had a mild heart attack at work at age 31 and another that had a nervous breakdown at 32....both put in over 3000 hrs last year. (my company has a long history of being a workaholic/alcoholic company, esp. amongst the Canadian expatriates that founded it).

[trinacriabob]

Hey, Moltar, I'm very sorry. This is hard...especially when they are people you like. It's sad to watch people you like leave a company, let alone this.

I have only lost one friend. He was one of a couple of best friends in high school. They had moved to the Miami area. His mother said it was a car hitting him while changing a tire -- I suspect otherwise, as he tried to maintain this jovial air when things in his family life ($h!ty parents) were really quite turbulent. I didn't want to believe it but then, while on vacation for the first time in Florida, I went to the Catholic cemetery in the western outskirts of Miami and found his grave (age 20). It hit me hard. One summer, as a joke, we threw about 50 red food-colored tampons in his pool when they were in Florida. We lived in his back yard pool all through high school. We laughed about that for months...years.

I am in a line of work where I could do the workaholic thing but I refuse to and this has limited me. It's not a guarantee of success...and certainly not of happiness. I live my life like this:

May 2006 - Florida/Atlanta

October 2006 - Quebec

March 2007 - Argentina and Uruguay

July 2007 - Italy and Portugal

Everything in between is filler.

To everyone and everything else, F*** YOU.

Again, I'm sorry. This makes us step back and evaluate things.

[Robert Hall]

I've lost a couple of close friends before--one of my two best friends from high school went into the Army, trained as a chopper pilot, served in Desert Storm, then died in car accident in Germany a few years later. Another close friend in grad school died in Michigan when a semi ran over his motorcycle.

I've been trying to cut back on the workaholic thing myself over the last year...consiously gone from 70 hr weeks to 45-55 hr weeks...the long hours have mentally taken a toll on me and my relationship w/ my g/f (she works long hours and travels for work a lot)., and hasn't helped my waistline (not enough exercise, too much take-out food and alcohol). With tight deadlines, outsourcing, and desperate customers overtime and workaholic environments seem to be hard to escape in the software biz.

[knightfan26917]

moltar,

Very sorry for your loss. Thoughts/prayers coming your way.

A few years ago, while I was still at Sears, one of the coworkers in our department had a heart attack en route to work and crashed and died.

And, oddly, just today, my parents told me that the wife of their Pastor at church died in an auto accident in Arkansas either very early this morning or late last night.....

Cort, "Mr MC" / "Mr Road Trip", 32swm/pig valve/pacemaker

MC:family.IL.guide.future = http://www.chevyasylum.com/cort/

chdQB = http://www.chevyasylum.com/cort/quilt.html

"Time is a natural healer" ... John Conlee ... 'Years After You'

[ocnblu]

My workplace has become much more intense in the last year or so. I'm really tired of the long hours and constantly going in on Saturdays to try to get caught up.

Moltar, please take good care of yourself. No job is worth your health... or your life.