john nelson

monday morning i was in my office bright and early at 7:30. my coworkers don't start rolling in until around 8 or 9 so it's usually quiet at that time. i was catching up on my paperwork when the regional vp, a man i rarely talk to, came into my office and told me that one of my coworkers had died over the weekend. john had been in a suburban with two of his buddies on a rural road. he was in the back seat and had taken his seatbelt off for a minute when the vehicle hit ice. john went through the windshield and the suburban rolled over him. his buddies were fine.

john has triplet 5 year old boys and a one year old daughter. at his funeral yesterday i learned that he was born three months before me, that he was an active member of his church and respected and loved as a family man and a role model. our whole office thought the world of him. there were so many people at the service that there were chairs set up in the foyer outside the chapel and even more people had to stand. many men in business suits, and all the women, cried.

oddly, he was the one person i work with that i've had a hard time with. i had a business deal a few months ago that he gave me incorrect information on, and because of that it fell through, and he blamed me. just two days before he died, he left me a message trying to get me to give him credit for another deal he had nothing to do with. but in the end, his business dealings with me were nothing. i looked around that church at the evidence of how that man had lived his life, at all the people who looked up to him, at his beautiful family who had come to the office six months ago and sang happy birthday to him, and i cried. i had to go into the bathroom because i couldn't stop crying.

it's such a small little window that each of us looks through and it's such a big world. we miss so many details.