Good Night, Sherry

Yesterday one of the ladies I work with passed away. Sherry left work Wednesday evening like she does every evening, got in the car with her husband, drove home, started relaxing for the evening and suddenly, without warning, had a heart attack. Her husband rushed her to the hospital and they performed surgery on her heart and fixed it. But it was already too late. During the heart attack she stopped breathing and her brain went without oxygen for over 5 minutes. They kept her alive by artificial means until yesterday morning. She had a living will that made her wishes very clear. She didn't want to be kept alive by artificial means. So when the doctors told her husband she was brain dead, and there was nothing else they could do for her, he turned the machines off, and she quietly slipped away. That was it. Just like that she was gone. A colleage was gone. A friend was gone. A wife was gone. A human being was gone.

I couldn't sleep last night thinking about Sherry. Her passing was so quick. One minute she was here and the next minute she was gone. When I said "goodbye" to her on Wednesday evening, like I've done so many evenings during the past two years, it never occured to me it would be the last time I would ever see her again. When I said "Good night Sharon!" to her on Wednesday, I didn't know those would be the last words I would ever say to her.

It made me think...every time you say goodbye to someone, it could be the last time. Life is so fleeting and so fragile. Shouldn't the act of saying "Goodbyes" be something regarded as very special? Maybe like a prayer or something? Or least filled with kind words and some edification of the person we're saying goodbye to? Yet we make them so casual. Sometimes we don't even look at the person we're saying goodbye too. We just assume we'll see the person "tomorrow". We are so wrong for this.

It also made me think about Sherry's life (what little I knew of it). She'd worked at our company for 40 years. She had more vacation than she was ever able to take in one year, because she was so dedicated to the job. She very rarely took sick days. She did talk about retiring in 2 years, she also talked all the time about the cruise she and her husband we're going on this summer. They loved to travel. That's really all I knew of Sharon, those things and the fact she could have retired years ago. I just hope and pray she kept working because she wanted to, and not because she had to.

Is it always good to plan for tomorrow instead of living for today? We're taught that it is, but so many lives speak of something different to me. I can't stop thinking about Sherry and her life, and how she died. And I just hope she enjoyed everything the way she was supposed to, and I hope she didn't put off until tomorrow the things she could have done today. I hope she had a happy life and enjoyed time with friends and family. I hope she did the things that made life worthwhile for her.

How will you say goodbye the next time someone leaves? How would you live your life if you knew tomorrow wasn't coming? I'm pondering those same questions myself.

*Good night, Sherry. Thanks for all your hard work. I really enjoyed working with you today! Have a wonderfully, blessed evening with your family and I'll see you tomorrow!!*

My New Fashion Statement: Be Seen in Green!!

Being seen in green is my new fashion statement. It doesn't pertain to my clothes, as much as it does to my bank account. It's my bank account that will be seen in green from now on. Here is where I will record my journey. I'll share tips with you about how I go from a red bank account to a green bank account. I'll share ideas and topics that I find interesting.

I'm doing this because there are so many other divas (and dudes too!) who are in the same boat I am in. One day we wake up and look around and we are in our 40's, we've worked hard all our lives, and we've spent life thinking we'll have another chance to make a change, or we have all the time in the world. Well today is the only day we have, and I've realized I've got to make today count. I'm faced with no retirement money, no college fund for my 14 year old son and no savings for emergencies. This cannot go on any longer. I've seen security slip away over the last several months. I've seen my 401K slip away as Wall Street has slipped away with million dollar bonuses, leaving a country of hard working people in total disarray in terms of finances and life savings.

It's time for me (all of us) to take our futures into our own hands, and to create a life that is not affected by, or dictated by, the wrong-doing and unethical behavior of greedy corporate big-wigs looking for a fast buck at the expense of the American people. Enough is enough...it's time to be seen in green!

The Dudes at AIG Getting Bonuses?? WTF???

It seems to me this company was doomed to fail simply because the powers-that-be at the head of AIG don't have a clue of what elementary school words like"the best and brightest" mean? Surely if they knew what these words meant they would not have used them to justify paying out millions of dollars of bonuses to the idiots that ran the company in the ground. To me "the best and brightest" means that the people running the company had gone over and beyond to make sure the company sustained growth and profit during the past year? We all know that didn't happen.

I say scratch the bonuses and let's start a college fund for these mofos and send them back to school and make sure they know the definition of the "best" and "brightest". Geez....Come on people...we've got to do better!

Maybe it's just me, but WTF?????