My 200th post - in Memory of a Friend

Can you believe it? I shot right by post #100 without even noticing, but for a few weeks now, I’ve known the 200th was coming up. I thought and thought about what to post about. I wanted it to be something really special. Since I am leaving for a visit to see my sister this weekend, I thought I would wait until I got back and make the post about her and my unborn niece.
Funny how life has a way of changing your plans. Somehow I think my sister will understand, but this post isn’t going to be about her after all.

Last night I lost a friend. He was way too young to die. Marcus’ death resulted from a tragically senseless accident at his home, when he took a nasty fall down a flight of stairs, thus sustaining a head injury. We knew yesterday that the outlook was grim, but thought we had a little more time. Instead, he left us last night around 8:30pm, leaving behind his parents, his sister and her children, his wife, and a host of people who knew and worked with him who will feel the loss of him in their own lives.

Marcus and I had worked together off and on for more than eight years. I first got to know him on a work trip to Mexico. Over the next few years, we spent a lot of time working with our Spanish speaking customers, me translating the calls between them. When I moved to the Internal Training group, I worked closely with him on many occasions, helping him prepare for classes that he taught. We were never close outside of work, but he was a good man.

One day, a woman came into his life. And into ours as well. I was so excited that he had found someone to make him happy, and I immediately wanted to be her friend, too. Since she was new to the area, I offered to throw her a bachelorette party. I remember this very clearly. When his wife-to-be told him about it, he seemed confused. “Oh no, I don’t think you’ll like her”, he’d said. “She’s a basketmaker” he had told her. I still remember when she told me about it. He only knew me as being the girl who makes quilts and does crafty things, and was probably quite dull outside of work. Well, suffice it to say he found out how wrong he was when I poured his fiancée into her mother-in-law’s house that night after getting her royally drunk and celebrating her upcoming nuptials with a blast of a sendoff. After that, we had a different understanding of each other, as I too, saw him in a new light. His wife showed me that he had a side to him that I never knew existed. He had a heart of gold. He adored his wife. He was soulful.
That is how I will always remember him.
May the Lord bless you and keep you, Marcus, until we meet again.