Life - it can be such a heartless bitch

A friend of mine has lung cancer. He is about 40, and yes, he has been smoking for years and years. He is in New Jersey, and I understand that he is receiving chemotherapy. Word on the street is that it has spread to his brain, and that it's not looking good. He was so nice to me at my old plant. When I first arrived, as a kid who was scared out of her mind, I needed some help. He helped me. Took me under his wing. Indeed, he was the one person who told me one day (upon realizing that I was the only Team Leader in the plant, late at night), that if I needed any help anywhere in the plant, even if he didn't know the area well, he'd be there to help. He is that kind of man. Once, a few months ago, I took him to the hospital. He'd cut his hand badly - there was quite a bit of blood. I was frightened. I was nervous because of all the blood and all the pain I imagined he would be in. Turns out he was in very little pain - or at least he didn't show it. Instead, he was laughing: at me for reacting so sheepishly to all the blood. At my relentless fidgeting as the nurses came to examine him. When the doctors finished with him, they slapped a band-aid on his finger and told him to go home and rest. And he put a smile on his face. That's the sort of guy he is - quick to smile, quick to reassure, and, I might add, quick to comfort other people. I hope this ends well. Or at least that it ends quickly and he doesn't have to suffer for a long time.

Still on the subject of the bitch known as cancer, today my plant manager had an emergency meeting. A long-serving member of my plant passed away. She had lung cancer, too. She had only begun chemotherapy really recently. Apparently she got a chance to see her family before she passed away. She didn't wake up this morning, we were told. My plant manager was pretty shaken up by the whole thing. So were the long term employees at the plant, as this lady had been at the plant 30 years.

Life, you see, is short. And too often, it can be a bloody bitch.