That Age

Apparently I’ve reached the age where friends start to die?

I got a call yesterday that someone I worked with passed away over the weekend. “She went into the hospital and didn’t come out,” is how the person who called me put it. This woman just turned 40 and was a very warm, bright personality. We weren’t close, but I just had dinner with her and her boyfriend (and some other colleagues). At dinner, she and her boyfriend were giddy, so in love, talking about the place they found to rent together, how they got rid of their “his” and “her’s” furniture and bought new stuff, and the life they were planning to build together. My heart aches for her boyfriend and her family.

Forty used to seem old, but now, of course, it doesn’t. Stuff like this definitely forces a reality check– focus on the things that matter, which are not the small things that are usually annoying me.

I went home and hugged Michaela extra tight.