An Elephant in the Backyard

The most difficult aspect of my job is not dealing with difficult customers -either those who don't have a clue of what they want or are just plain cranky. It's when I have customers who come in to have memorial cards made for a funeral.

You see, I am an emotional person. I wear my heart on my sleeve. I cry at the Folger's Coffee commercials (you know the ones - where the son surprises everyone at Christmas). I bawled through pretty much all of Steel Magnolia's. Extreme Home Makeover, yep, that'll get the ol' tear ducts a'flowin too! And not just at sad movies, but I've been known to cry at comedies and action/adventure movies, too.

So when I am sitting with customers at my computer at work, designing these little cards that boil someone's life down to a couple of paragraphs, it's very hard for me to remain stoic. But I do. I see certain little glimpses into the family. The smiles as they remember a fun time, the grief at a life taken unexpectantly, sometimes the relief that their loved one is no longer in pain.

I did some cards yesterday for a family. This time it was extremely hard for me to remain emotionally detached, I felt that any moment I would start crying and racked my brain trying to figure out why. Was I thinking about TaTia, my dad's aunt who is in the hospital right now after having two strokes? Yes, she was on my mind. Was it because I'm PMS'ing? Still don't know. But when they left, I lost it and just started bawling. It only lasted a minute or two and my co-worker Annie gave me a little hug and I was fine.

When I got home last night, Shauna told me that our friend (and her sister in law) Sunshine's dad was not doing well, his organs were starting to shut down. Bill has been battling with MS for a very long time. He's been confined to a wheelchair for the last few years and pretty much home-bound. I've only met Bill once and that was when he was toolin' around the neighborhood in his electric scooter, stopping to shoot the shit with anyone he saw. My sister Jessica and I happened to be some of those people a couple of years ago (Bill & his wife Trish live a block away from my sister). He rolled up into the driveway and we introduced ourselves and just chit chatted. He told us about living in Las Vegas, working as an OSHA inspector. Then he started telling what we believed to be tall-tales. I made mental notes to ask Sunshine what was true and what was false. Did he really come home from Vegas with an elephant that he traded a truck for? That turned out to be false. But I will always laugh when I think of Bill, just because of the elephant. Jessica & I still chuckle at that one..

Bill passed away about an hour ago. He's no longer in pain. My thoughts are with Sunshine and her family. And Jessica and I will take care of the elephant.