Sadly Remembered

In 1990 our school secretary was a nice young woman named Judy. She was the married mother of a 10 year old son, and was a pleasure to work with. She was already at the school when I arrived.

My wife and I were all set to go to Italy and I had some final instructions for my secretary.

The year before, when my previous boss had gone to Japan, one of his staff members passed away, and he never knew about it. They didn’t want to look for him and tell him, as he may have felt obligated to return for the funeral. As it was, he was upset because they didn’t call him, and he did feel guilty about not returning.

Knowing that scenario, I told Judy, “Don’t call me in Italy unless someone dies!” That way, my vacation would not be spoiled by little nonsense items that could be taken care of by the staff or left waiting for when I returned. After Italy, as the plane was landing back in Boston I said to my wife, “Well, at least no one died!”

I was met at the airport by one of our students who was house-sitting for us while we were gone. On the way home she said, “I have some bad news, your secretary died!”

Quietly sitting under a tree at her son’s little league game, Judy died of a cerebral hemorrhage.