Cherish the nice people in the world

Get ready for me to be mushy...

We got some bad news today. One of our coworkers is dying. Because the people who know the answers are (appropriately) not sharing them with the world, I don't have many details. There was some kind of medical event, and some complication. After being on life support for some amount of time, she has now been removed and is not awake. So it's just a matter of time.

I'm not that old, and I haven't had a huge amount of experience with people I know passing away. I do know that it sucks. And it really hits close to home when the person is honestly one of the nicest people you've met. She is one of those people who ALWAYS had a smile on her face. In my five years working at this company and in this department, I've never once seen her upset, agitated, frustrated, or angry. She's nice to everyone. She helps everyone. She's always pleasant. You could always count on her to be nice and cheer up your day. She wasn't someone that I socialized with outside of or at work, but every conversation I had with her was friendly and comfortable. She's thankful and considerate. I seriously couldn't describe a better personality for a coworker than what she exhibited every day here.

For reasons beyond my control, we didn't find out exactly what was going on until it was too late to talk with Cathy directly. If I could have, I would have told her how special of a person she was and how much of a difference she made through such seemingly small actions.

So here's my request of the day. It's something we've probably all heard before and we think about but don't always follow through on. Tell the people who make a difference in your life that they make a difference in your life. Everything that we all have and experience in this world is a gift, and we never know just how long we'll be around to enjoy it. Take every opportunity you get to share compliments, praise, and appreciation with someone. It can make a world of a difference.

Cathy, wherever you are, I hope you have at least an inkling of how much we all cared for you. The world will be a worse place without you.