Sad Day

Things got very sad and depressed in the office late Friday afternoon. One of our veteran admin assistants suffered a massive heart attack and passed away, despite CPR being administered right away. Paramedics took a surprisingly long time to arrive, about 20 minutes, and they didn't even have a defibrillator. It's unlikely that even a lightning-fast response would have helped; the attack was just too quick and severe.

She was actually in the cubicle diagonal to mine, talking with someone, when it happened. I wasn't there at the time; I was in a meeting in the other side of the building. As the meeting was wrapping up, an announcement came over the PA seeking people trained in CPR. I'm actually 8 years out of practice but I did rush over only to find that she was already being taken care of.

Life and death can hit you suddenly. It's not exactly a sad atmosphere in the office, but you can definitely feel that everyone is a little more contemplative today.