The Long Hard Road

Life goes on. When personal disaster strikes, it always seems to me that everyone should stand still and reckon with it until it is resolved. But they never do. Jobs, children, homes, spouses all require attention. And then at some point, the individual is left to deal with it themselves for awhile. People move on, people move away, people move to other restaurants. Losing touch happens, even if it wasn't purposeful or intended. It's hard.

It's even harder when you are reunited with a person through news of further strife. The restaurant manager whom I wrote about in Wedding Triumphs and Disasters has certainly had her share of both celebrations and concerns. Divorce. Remission of her cancer! New husband! BABY! More cancer. Successful bone marrow transplant! Family! Kidney dialysis. Tracheotomy. Friends! Feeding tube. Respirator. Hope!

Today was a day to reunite in person, on phone, and via email with some old restaurant co-workers, staff, and friends. So great to talk to everyone! Jermaine, Kim, Nikki, Mark, Rich, Bernadette, Gloria, Manny, Maynard, and on and on and on. So hard to be talking about this. Restaurant people are one big family. We always seem to pull back together, to find one another, to reconnect, to support one another when the need is greatest.

Positive thoughts and prayers are called for on this long hard road.

Edited: June 1st, 2008, Heather Barrineau, Rest In Peace

Death is nothing at all I have only slipped away into the next room I am I and you are you Whatever we were to each other That we are still Call me by my old familiar name Speak to me in the easy way you always used Put no difference into your tone Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow Laugh as we always laughed At the little jokes we always enjoyed together Play, smile, think of me, pray for me Let my name be ever the household word that it always was Let it be spoken without effort Without the ghost of a shadow in it Life means all that it ever meant It is the same as it ever was There is absolute unbroken continuity What is death but a negligible accident? Why should I be out of mind Because I am out of sight? I am waiting for you for an interval Somewhere very near Just around the corner All is well. Nothing is past; nothing is lost One brief moment and all will be as it was before How we shall laugh at the trouble of parting when we meet again! ~Canon Henry Scott-Holland, 1847-1918