A Life Lost

I was half asleep; in the beginning stages of my afternoon nap, when my dad walks into my room and hands me today's paper. I was thinking to myself, "what now?" But when I read the headline and the first sentence of the story, I immediately got up. A co-worker of mine had gone missing. He was last seen on Wednesday afternoon and hadn't been discovered as of Friday morning. He is on the same crew as I and although he has been with us for a relatively short time, I got to know him pretty well. He was always willing to help out, even if he didn't know certain areas of the plant. He, I, and the rest of our crew got off of midnight shift Wednesday morning. Sometime that afternoon, he went on a motorcycle ride and never came back.

How could you not think of the worst when someone goes missing? Certainly it was in the back of my mind, but I was more confident that he had gotten lost and perhaps his motorcycle broke down. It happens, especially in the thick forests of the Upper Peninsula. I expected him to be alive. I waited to watch the local news at 6:00 that evening to see if there were any updates. When the story came up, my heart sank...

"The search for a missing Ishpeming township man has ended after his body is found," the story started. I knew right then it wasn't good. Details on the accident are still under investigation, but it appears he failed to turn with a curve in the road he was driving on and went down an 80 foot embankment. He was found in a heavily wooded area where it was difficult to find him until today. Needless to say, I was shocked by the news. It's never something you expect to hear. It took my awhile for the news to register, but eventually did. Then I realized I would never see him at work again.

He was a heck of a nice guy, always friendly and helped out wherever he was needed. He was a stand-up person, not afraid to learn or to get dirty. One of the last things he and I talked about before our long weekend started was his plans to paint his house this weekend. He had actually planned to go camping down near Wisconsin Dells but changed his plans because he needed to get his house painted. We had discussed that Thursday was going to be a perfect day for it - since it was going to be in the 60's and the paint wouldn't dry as fast. He even talked about an accident his wife had been in previously and how angry at the treatment she received by the city's police department. Fate would have it that he would get into his own accident the next day.

So I am not in the best of moods considering the news of the past day. He is an individual that will be missed and hard to replace. It just goes to show you that life can be way too short. You just never know when it'll be your time to go.