A death in the family ...

Several years ago I worked for a small family owned business that sold restaurant equipment and supplies. I was employed as the Drafter/Designer and produced the hand drawn blue prints for the contractors to build the restaurants from. The boss had the temperament of Ebenezer Scrooge and got his money and the business the old fashioned way ... he inherited it! He was an only child and I have been told by many that as a child he got beat up virtually every day because of his arrogant attitude.

There came a time when after struggling for years with a drinking problem my father's health had deteriorated greatly and he had been told he would have less than a year to live. We had made our peace and actually began to grow close again after many years of not talking. Most of my co-workers knew of my situation so it came to no one's surprise that one day the call came that my fathers kidneys had shut down and he had slipped into a coma over night. I was asked to go to the hospital and wait for the inevitable. I was told it could be hours for his organs to fully shut down.

When I informed my boss that I needed to leave, he stated that he had promised my drawings to the client by noon that day and if I left, I could take my things with me since I would no longer have a position with his company.

I knew he couldn't just fire me, and I knew that I could successfully argue my case with the Department of Labor, but I would also need to pay for my father's pending funeral, and I couldn't do both at the same time.

I had about an hours worth of work to complete my set of blue prints so I chose to stay. Within 30 minutes of this decision, I received another telephone call ... my father had passed away. I had been 15 minutes away from the hospital and could have been there when he passed. He would not have been aware of my presence, but I would have known. To this day I regret not telling that so of a whatever to fire me and walked out.

I left minutes after the second call and I told my boss that I was leaving. I worked for him for about a year after that and then left to start my on consulting business. I had promised myself that I would urinate on that guys grave the day he was buried, but you know almost 10 years later when he had died, all I could do is console his wife for her loss.

What mattered was not my anger and hatred was her loss for someone that she had loved for more than 50 years. Yeah he was an all purpose asshole, but that was not excuse for me to be one also.