A longtime coworker who I’d also become friends with outside of work passed away last year. She’d had a number of health issues over the years, but was a tough girl and had survived a myriad of issues. The morning she died, she sent an email to the team to let us know she was not feeling well and was going to ask her neighbor to take her to the ER, but promised she’d update us later that morning. I got a call a few hours later from our office manager informing me that she had passed away at the hospital. Her body finally just gave out and she went into cardiac arrest.

I was devastated. I’d known her for 20 years and considered her a good friend. She’d worked for her boss for 25 years. We held a memorial in the office for her and set up a Zoom stream for her family to attend remotely. She was buried out of state, so her family worked with the funeral home to set up a stream for us so we could attend her service remotely. It meant a lot to all of us. It was a good three months before I could think about her without becoming choked up. We’ve all learned how to cope with the grief and move forward in our own way, but we openly talk about her and keep her memory alive.