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a death in the department
Jun. 1st, 2010 07:42 pmA colleague died suddenly. She was 58. She was admitted to hospital with a broken leg, then she had a pulmonary embolism in hospital and suddenly, she died. She was at our institution for 33 years. She was a difficult colleague and nobody who knew her was indifferent to her, a fiery old Marxist and unionist. It is very shocking and only just sinking in (it happened last Thursday).
Death has a strange effect when it happens close by. It's so wrong when someone 'drops dead on the job'. The sequence is supposed to be retirement party -- draw your pension and have a good life -- and then, years down the line, a sad announcement. This is so wrong. Her name's still on her door; people are still emailing her (the computing services won't allow us to hack into her account); today I marked one of her dissertations: it was like standing in a dead woman's shoes.
*shakes self* I had to draft emails to the students and to colleagues who are no longer at our institution, re-arrange her marking, find out what else she was supposed to be doing. I'm finding it really tough. In a funny way, it's worse today than it was last Thursday when we stood around in shock and went to the pub to swap stories about her.
:-( Let's enjoy life while we have it and let's not worry about the small shit. There's no use planning ahead: oh, when I'm retired, then I'll do this and that... it may not happen...!
Death has a strange effect when it happens close by. It's so wrong when someone 'drops dead on the job'. The sequence is supposed to be retirement party -- draw your pension and have a good life -- and then, years down the line, a sad announcement. This is so wrong. Her name's still on her door; people are still emailing her (the computing services won't allow us to hack into her account); today I marked one of her dissertations: it was like standing in a dead woman's shoes.
*shakes self* I had to draft emails to the students and to colleagues who are no longer at our institution, re-arrange her marking, find out what else she was supposed to be doing. I'm finding it really tough. In a funny way, it's worse today than it was last Thursday when we stood around in shock and went to the pub to swap stories about her.
:-( Let's enjoy life while we have it and let's not worry about the small shit. There's no use planning ahead: oh, when I'm retired, then I'll do this and that... it may not happen...!