It Just Feels Wrong

One of my coworkers mentioned yesterday that today would be her last day at work before she retired. We had no idea this was coming. That was insufficient notice to plan a proper party, but I figured that if I made a Costco run before work today, I could buy some party food so that we could do at least something special on her last day. That plan was shot to Hell when I didn't wake up in time. Plan B was to give our secretary some money and send her out to buy food and a cake.

I brought money to work and guess who wasn't there. My retiring coworker decided to call in sick on her last day of work. How irritating is that? She worked here over 25 years and suddenly she's gone without any acknowledgment of her years of service. No good-byes, no nothing. Something just feels terribly wrong with that.

Another one of the nurses in my hospital suffered a catastrophic stroke while at work a couple of months ago. He's just now starting to breathe on his own, but he is unable to communicate and no one really knows how much he understands. He's still in our ICU.

This nurse is also the sole support of his quadriplegic wife, minor child and wheelchair-bound, seriously ill mother. Because he is no longer able to work, he was terminated, which also resulted in the loss of his health insurance. His family is now being sent massive bills for his hospitalization. Something just feels terribly wrong with that too. (And I thought that I had problems)