And so I missed another post goddammit.
Yesterday was a busy one, blogfriends. Most of it was festive, part of it was sad. I shall enlighten.
I read the obituaries in the local paper. It’s something I got from my mum. When you have lived basically your whole life in the same city, it’s a good idea. My parents got the paper every day and they always read the obituaries. This was one of the things that drove my mother nuts about her friends, most of them didn’t get the paper or even access it online, so they didn’t know what was going on. Knowing when people die might seem like a morbid kind of pasttime, but in a way it’s essential as you get older. For example, my mum would read about the death of a former coworker. She would, if appropriate, go to the visitation if she was able. If not, she would send a card or make a donation – as appropriate. Several months later she would be out for dinner with other former coworkers, and someone would mention “oh gosh we haven’t seen so-and-so for ages” and my mum would say “um….they died. Like 6 months ago, don’t you people read the fucking paper???”
Okay, so likely the f-bomb wasn’t in there, but you get the drift.
When I started at my current job, I also started reading the obituaries. Again, a little on the morbid side you might say, but I say it’s good, compassionate business practice. One of the things I try to avoid is to send overdue notices to dead people. It’s just something I prefer. When my dad died, for the next 6 months or so my mum would get phone calls for my dad. One time it was the hospital – where he died – calling to remind him to come in for his MRI. Awkward. So, in order to avoid this situtation as much as possible, I read the obituaries.
So. Last Saturday I checked out the online obits and saw a name I recognized. So I read it and I read it again to confirm that it was in fact a friend of my mum’s. Who was 64. And then I cried and then I copied down the details of the visitation and yesterday I went to her house and gave my condolences to her very shocked and numb husband.
And you know what? In a few months I will probably run into another of my mum’s friends and they will say “hey, I wonder how so-and-so is doing” and I will say “she died, don’t you people read the fucking paper???” F-bomb fully intact.
So yeah, that was the afternoon yesterday. But then after that I went to a kickass event at my friend K’s salon, and then The Musician and I caught The Sheepdogs gig downtown.
After the show we thought about catching a cab home, but there were no cabs to be had so we decided to walk. And at the time it was a great idea, we grabbed a couple of bottles of water and had a nice time chatting. FOR THE 45 MINUTES IT TOOK TO WALK HOME.
And so it was after midnight when we arrived home. And so I did not blog.
Fin.
The Urban Info Girl 