Anyone who knows me know I'm not in the best of health. Sometimes that gets a little depressing. But, there are times when things happen that really put one's own problems in perspective. One of those moments happened to me this morning.
There is a woman (though I can't help thinking of her as a girl) whom I attended technical school with back in 1984-1985. She was in the same program I was where they paid us to go to school. Mine was due to a health problem and hers was due to having an aunt in charge of the program. *wink* But, she started school several days late and after all the lockers were taken so I asked her if she would like to share mine. Ok, I'm a nice person, but this was mostly because she was a sexy, blonde with all the right curves in all the right places.
She and I were pretty good friends all during school but she decided to leave school early after completing the Computer Operator part of the course while I continued to finish the Computer programmer course. Just before I left for the Army in 1986 another friend of mine (yes another girl... sexy redhead this time) and I went to visit the lady at her home. That was the last time I ever saw her.
That was like twenty-five years ago. A few months back I got a Face Book message from her wanting to know if I was the person she had gone to school with all those years ago. Of course I was happy to hear from her. Over the past few months we have done a lot of catching up and I must say times of late her life has been a lot more hectic and stressful than my own.
She just recently lost her husband and the toxicology report showed nothing in his system except his prescription medications. Apparently, just a bad reaction or interaction to his medications. Even more recently her father-in-law passed and her (adult) son has been really distraught. She has not been much better. Got to be rough.
Got an email from her this morning after an endoscopy and they found "something" on her esophagus. Said it had been there a good while but they were afraid it had turned cancerous but she won't know until after the biopsy.
Those kind of things tend to make one stop and reassess things when one starts feeling too sorry for oneself. So very many people in this world have so many more problems and difficulties to deal with than even the worse off of us in America do.
I wish we cold all keep some perspective all the time without having to have all these sorry reminders of how much worse off other people are. We need to just stop bitching and feeling so sorry for ourselves and look around us and we'll see so many things we have to be thankful for and so many people who have so much less.
Perspective. We all need to have a little better dose of that.
Blonde? I have NEVER heard you refer to a white woman, let alone a BLONDE, as sexy. Who are you?
ReplyDeleteI wonder if I can program Google reader to omit the word sexy from your blog when I read it. At least when it refers to women you met between the years of, say, 1973 and 1993.
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On the more serious note, I know what you mean. The youth here have had a bit of upheaval, as of late, and the drama is saddening. I remember getting a one-word message after Natalie's cancer diagnosis and attempted removal. One word: inoperable. I ran to the bathroom and vomited. I can honestly say my life has not been the same after kissing the dead body of my once dear friend. I feel too young to have so many graves where loved ones used to be.