In Sympathy

I've been living in a fog the last 9 days, with either Will or myself in bed sick. Much has passed me by: family, events, news, weather. Something I did not miss being a part of was the live minute-to-minute news broad cast when a small airplane flew directly into an IRS building in North Austin.

The reason I didn't miss it was due to my closest friend, Charlene, who happens to have worked for the IRS for seventeen years. Who prior to taking maternity - and then never returning to work - worked in that building. Who still maintained close relationships with almost all the IRS employees in that building.

Charlene who called and woke me from my mid-morning nap. On the way to watch her soon practise swimming at our local YMCA, she just happen to catch the live announcement. Shaken and in tears, she was unable to make it home and stopped by my house to see what was going on, to get more information. We got on the Internet and pulled up one site after another looking for the latest information. In particular, deaths, injuries, and those unaccounted for.

The entire time I was searching one site after another I could hear her dialing one friend after another. Nothing. Hitched breaths. No one answered. Sobbing. Pacing.

In half an hour they had a head count and there was one missing IRS employee. Knowing the building as she does, Charlene was looking at it going it could have been ____, or _____, or ______. Hell, if not for the birth of her son, it could have been Charlene.

The IRS employee that died was the first person that stopped by the hospital to see Charlene after the birth of her son. He was a good guy.

I know this week has been hard on her, and not just for what did happen, but for what could have happened.