My old boss called me this AM. Actually he left me a VM, left VMs on my husband’s cell, sent me an email and sent me a Facebook message. Hmm. This can’t be good. I have been out with the dogs on the beach all morning so just saw/heard them all. I called him back and he starts off by saying he was OK, and his father (who is like 1000 now…OK, actually 90) but then he started sounding choked up. Uh-oh. Turns out his brother was on a bike ride in Sun Valley and had a heart attack and didn’t make it. Yikes.
The brothers were pretty darn close. Of course that’s why when they argued at work sometimes it turned into a book or stapler throwing kinda thing. Made for an interesting work environment :) They didn’t argue like that much though. Usually just slammed down phone receivers and slammed doors and then everything blew over in like 20 minutes and they were cracking jokes again. Family…But I’m glad I worked in that environment. It toughened me up. Pretty much nothing surprises me, shocks me or offends me. I hear people make workplace complaints now about the STUPIDEST things and it makes me wonder how they exist in the world. Wimps. They certainly wouldn’t have made it 1 week working for these guys.
He said it happened on Friday afternoon and on Friday night and Saturday he was in a bit of a daze so apologized for not calling me until today. Apologize? I said don’t be silly. He said “Well, you’ve been part of the family for a long time, so I didn’t want you hearing about it elsewhere first.” This is the same guy who helped me when my brother died last November. He really is the sweetest guy, without being a wimp, I have ever met. And has basically been a 2nd father to me since I was 18.
He started sounding a little choked again so I asked “was he yelling at someone when this happened?” (we have an odd sense of humor.) He laughed and said “No – that’s the worst part. What a dick. And now I can’t yell at him for dying.” I responded “Right? What a dick thing to do?” We both laughed and started telling me a couple recent stories about his brothers. His other brother is taking this much worse as he was in Sun Valley with him when it happened and they were extremely close (like talk on the phone 10-20 times a day close.) I asked him how his father was taking it. He said it pretty rough. Kids aren’t supposed to die before their parents. I said “well man he is like 200 years old now – I think he is throwing down the gauntlet to mr. death.” He laughed and agreed. Their other brother is staying with him. Knowing how he was with his kids, I’m mostly worried about him and how it will effect his health – both mental and physical.
Then we started talking about stocks. He just did a deal with a very big money guy in NYC. It’s someone he’s done business with in the past years ago and they recently got back in touch. They have been mostly shorting a bunch of stocks so doing pretty well. I told him to let me know when he’s doing big blocks of trades so I could ride along :) Kidding! But he did give me a short and a long idea that I will investigate.
We chatted about his fund & the market for awhile and then Tahoe. I told him he had to bring his wife and son and come up Tahoe and visit soon. He said he would like that. And then I told him to stay busy – it really helped me. He said he was heading back into the office in a bit and would definitely stay busy. He commented that he and I really have had a crappy year with family and death so far. I told him yeah – the universe needs to knock it off. And I told it so. He laughed and said he was glad we chatted and said again “Man, I am so pissed I can’t tell him what a dick he is.” I laughed and agreed. He said he just found out yesterday that his brother had high blood pressure. He couldn’t believe it never came up. I said he probably didn’t want to worry anyone and figured all the healthy eating and exercise would counteract it. And also he was a dick for not telling you. He laughed. We do have a bit of a strange sense of humor. Why I think we get along so well.
I’m sad for him. And I hope that I was able to help him today, even if just a little, like he helped me when my brother died. But I know he will be OK. He commented that people were dropping like flies. He said let’s stay in real touch (calls vs quick emails) more often and not just when people die and not wait until that day I’ll get that phone call about him and he laughed. I laughed back and said “No. That is not allowed to happen.” But it really isn’t….
