I plead the 5th is always what I had thought of when I heard the 5th. Recently, that changed for me forever and not pleasantly.
On August 5th, my boss {whom I was very fond of and had worked for twelve years) passed away of a massive heart attack. On October 5th, my dad passed away because he had Alzheimer’s and forgot to breathe. On March 5th, a childhood friend whom I grew up with passed away from meningitis. And in January a coworker passed away due to cancer.
My boss Kevin was an extremely hard loss for me, he was a tough person, his way, or the highway kind of guy. I had learned early on what he expected of me, and I delivered. He also helped me and many others throughout the years, so he was kind in that way.
A couple of months before his passing I got to experience the happiest he had ever been. It took all those years to see a light in his eyes and with a smile and just wanted to feel life each day.
He had made it known to me that he truly 100% trusted me dealing with his finances, and that was a fulfilling feeling. When he passed away, I grieved so hard that the stress brought on shingles. That was rough, it was the second time in my life having shingles, and I’m not fifty yet. It was the worst of the two, I had a horseshoe like around my arm pit. It could always have been worse, like friends of mine that had it on their face. Even though I was miserable I am lucky for the place where it ended up.
Since his passing an investor has bought the business and they are letting another business that they bought run it. It had been a family-oriented type of business, for 12 years that’s what I knew and now it had turned corporate. I am thankful that I was able to keep my job. I will never forget the many moments of those 12 years though.
My dad was so young when he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and when he had passed. Over the course of ten years, I unfortunately got to see him decline back into a childlike stage, I do not wish that on anyone.
I had taken care of my parents financially for over 16 years when he was diagnosed, that is an extremely hard disease. When he passed, my mom and siblings were with me to watch his last breath. I have worked at nursing homes and have seen people after they have passed, so I knew what to expect, but what bothered me the most is when they took off the powerful oxygen mask he had on and put a smaller one on. They had to, because the powerful mask was making his body do a lot of work and that made him tired, I don’t believe they gave him enough morphine to make him comfortable like he should have also. When they took the powerful mask off, he got scared and one of his eyes became huge. That memory will be forever because we have the same color eyes and I think about him every time I do my make up.
Even though my dad was a contributor to my bad childhood, he taught me so much to be an adult. He was a hard worker and a jack of all trades; he helped me to get where I am today.
I remember at the age of 17 I blew the engine on my car he had given me. A neighbor that was going to do the work on my car wanted sex as a trade and I said no. I never told my dad that was the reason he didn’t work on my car, but my dad made me rebuild the engine myself. It took me a long time, but I did it. Not at that time, but later I learned to appreciate it, because it taught me more than most girls my age.
I had lost touch with my childhood friend, Candie. The memory that I remember the most, was the insane night she had a party at her house, and I woke up hurting. Candie, some of her other friends and I were sleeping over, we all were on her waterbed that was so cold. It was the Poison song “talk dirty to me” that I remember the most from the party, this memory will be forever in my mind. I really wished I had stayed in contact with her.
Candie’s mother loved her deeply, I was surprised by the photos with me in them during the funeral. I cried when I heard the story that when she passed, she waited for her son to cuddle up with her then she was gone. I really wished I never lost touch with her; she was such a good person.