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Death of a sysadmin

Posted: June 16th, 2017, 7:26 pm
by didds
25-27 years ago I worked with a bloke a very few years older than me... I was in my mid-twenties at the time. He wasn't my bestest bosom buddy, but I liked him and we got along well, both at work and socially (we worked in a very social-outside-of-work environment). We weren;t close in any means - just somebody that if I met socially I'd enjoy being with, and at work was a pleasure to work with (even if he grabbed all the incoming work leaving me with little to do some days!).

I have possibly seen him at most three times since I left that place of employment - he stayed there since. I didn't contact him, not him me. I'd think of him occasionally but that's it.

I learned yesterday he died in April, aged 57. Said he felt unwell one afternoon and was going to the doctors, then he was dead a few days later. Stomach ulcer and liver failure and his body basically gave up while the doctors were trying to save him.

Why am I so affected by this? Its hit me quite hard. Like I said we weren't even vaguely close - if he did social media I didn't know. Irony is I've now found him on linked-in...


I can only assume its because I am aware of my own health issues and aging process generally speaking,

farewell Steve. RIP.

Thanks for listening everybody.

didds

Re: Death of a sysadmin

Posted: June 17th, 2017, 11:06 pm
by dionaeamuscipula
Sounds like you have been brought face to face with your own mortality, which is a bit sobering.

My parents generation are pretty much all gone, now my generation are starting to go. I am highly aware that I am 51 years older than my youngest child, which is one reason why I have started going to the gym.

DM

Re: Death of a sysadmin

Posted: June 18th, 2017, 2:40 pm
by staffordian
These things hit home hard, dont they?

I heard just yesterday afternoon that a chap I worked with for many years passed away that morning. Like me he took early retirement a few years ago, and was enjoying life. He was only in his early sixties.

And only this morning I read of the death of a cyclist late last week on the A50 near Derby. I didn't know him personally but like me he worked for Derby City Council, in his case for 47 years until 2008. But I felt I knew him as he was a regular poster on a railway forum I frequent

It does make one think, there but for the grace of God, go I.

Very sobering.

Re: Death of a sysadmin

Posted: June 18th, 2017, 5:31 pm
by Sussexlad
I've just worked my way through a 'Dying tidily' guide ! Fortunately my affairs are very straightforward but it does bring home your time here is finite. I can't find the actual one now but there are several links on Google and having as much information as possible in the one place must make it easier for your partner/executor.

Re: Death of a sysadmin

Posted: June 18th, 2017, 7:49 pm
by sg31
Similar thing happened to me a few years ago. I did a few building jobs for a guy, nothing major but he was a regular. I got to know him and his family quite well on a business basis. He was a civil servant and took retirement at 60, his wife was a few months away from retirement, they had big plans to travel as soon as she finished work.

Some time later his wife rang me and asked me to do some work on a different house. I turned up and got busy, after a while she made me a cuppa and we chatted...

"How's Mike?"

" I'm sorry I thought you knew, he died."

I was pole axed, it was so unexpected. I finished the job but over the next few days it affected me more each day, much more that it should have. I was more affected by Mikes death than anything else since. Even the death of my father didn't have that impact. I know that sounds bad but dad was 89 and had been very ill for a long time, his death was a blessing for him as an end to his suffering.

Even now I get a strange feeling every time I think of Mike. It must have caught me at a vulnerable time, I still can't work out why.

Time to start living.

Re: Death of a sysadmin

Posted: June 21st, 2017, 9:58 am
by Sunnypad
sorry to hear that didds

you know what I think happens sometimes, is someone you don't know very well but were always really pleased to see - when they pass, it feels like a bit of nice left the world and even if we didn't know them well, it compounds the sadness.

(((didds)))