Take time

Recently I had a cherished friend and co-worker become dangerously ill. This particular co-worker has been a light for me in this dark world. I am eternally grateful for her. She is from an older generation and I cherish talking to her about her memories. She was taught to work, and to work hard. She was taught that she could provide for herself and others. Often she tells me about how her family ran the largest laundry service in the state, and how she worked for Coleman sewing zippers on sleeping bags. She opened her own beauty shop, and she still cuts her own hair. She would tell me about growing up, and how close she lived to school. She told me about how shy she was. She told me about meeting her husband. She tells me she never personally knew my grandparents, but she knew of them. She's younger than my grandparents so that's understandable. This woman is peculiar, and that is one of the many reasons why I love her. The more I talk to her the more sad for her I become. She has worked for the company for over twenty years. She rarely takes vacation, even though she has it available to her. She calls herself stupid, because as a child she was told she was illiterate so she didn't learn a lot of things. Every two weeks, she makes herself sandwiches for work and freezes them. She doesn't cook, she doesn't do math. In nearly eight years, I have never seen her pay with cash.We struggled for a bit when she was forced to do something that wasn't what she was accustomed to. She and I both thought it was because they were trying to force her out because of her age and ability. She told me at the time that she was afraid to stop working and officially retire, because working kept her active and social. She was afraid that if she stopped she would get sick and die. We struggled through those months and made it out on the other side. When I discovered that she was sicker than she was letting on; I told her that she needed to take time off and get better. This funny woman came back to work one week after being in the hospital. Of course with major disagreement from her family.  She was afraid she would not have a job to come back to if she didn't. She thought that actively working would help her recover faster. This made me even more sad.  Luckily, she realized that she needed to take more time for herself to heal. She is a valuable employee and her absence is noticed. I have taken the responsibility of making sure she is taken care of at work. Making sure she had the vacation days her family asked her to take. Helping her do tasks on the computer that were required of her. I was the one that told her she needed to go home. I arranged transportation home for her because she was so sick I didn't want her driving. I even programmed myself into her phone and told her exactly what buttons to push to get me. I happily call myself her personal secretary.  In her twenty years with the company she has never called out sick. She worked the night her husband died. She worked the night her brother died. She worked when her family needed her. Her reasoning was, "Well, there is nothing I can do to change the situation. So I may as well work." I will forever cherish this woman, but this is one thing I can never value. I understand it, but I don't agree.
Work will always be there. If its not the job you currently have, it will be another. We can never get back the moments we miss. Work can't be the only thing that you do. Cherish every moment with your family, and your friends. Take vacation, take an extra day off work. Take time to heal yourself. See the concert you've been dying to see. Visit the city you've always dreamed of visiting. Be apart of the life that continues on when you are busy at work. Pick up a hobby, cook more, read more, travel more. Visit friends and family more, be there for the moments you will wish you hadn't missed. Tell your stories, remember the loved ones you miss. You deserve to have that time. We never know when our time is up. Don't grow old with only stories about work. Hard work is valuable, so of course have stories about work. If we don't take time to nourish our life in other ways how on earth can we have a life worth living and remembering?
 I hope my dear friend is healing and happy. I can't wait for her to come back so I can continue to be apart of her work family. More than that I hope she takes all the time she needs, because she deserves it.