Death of a loved one.

With the economy struggling we all make sacrifices to keep the dream of a better future alive.  One of our dreams was shattered the other day, a terrible tragedy and senseless loss of an old friend.  It came so suddenly, out of the blue and she was gone.  No chance to say goodbye, only the regret of not having said so much of what we could have conveyed.

My daughter had a photo shoot set for that afternoon and like many of her gigs I tag along as the second shooter, snapping my photos and trying to look important, but on this occasion we never made it.  The heartbreaking events of that day made the trip impossible.

For years we have had a great relationship, no real complaints.  The association was mutual and very beneficial for our family and for our companion. Every day we would meet and every day we would work together solving the issues of the day, happy at the end of each day that all was well and everyone was safe at home and ready for the morrow.  

It was last Friday, nothing unusual about the day. We went together for a checkup and said we’d be back in a couple of hours.  Arriving back, we were in a hurry to get to the photo shoot but nothing seemed out of the ordinary, so we left and started the drive toward San Diego. 

It was only a small complaint at first, a low rumbling, a groan of discomfort, nothing serious by any means and nothing to indicate the events that would turn our lives upside down.  We simply continued to drive and talk, thinking of the events coming rather than the throws of demise that were unsuspectingly upon us.

We knew something was wrong when the quite rumblings turned into shaking and almost violent convulsions.  I quickly pulled the car to the side of the road and called for help.  It took forever it seemed for help to arrive but when it did, he took a quick look and smiled a faint understating grin of understanding, knowing with one look what the diagnosis was and probably what the prognosis would be.

It took another few minutes to arrive at the facility and a few more minutes to be given the bad news.  There is massive internal injury.  There is really nothing more for us to do at this point.  We knew, we knew the end was near and we knew we would never have this old friend again.  It was so tragic, so senseless, we were angry, frustrated, but mostly we were numb at the loss of our good friend.

I won’t name names, it seems superfluous really.  It was their fault, they were extremely negligent and had it not been for their carelessness we would still have our trusted friend with us.  But we had to come to terms with this loss and holding a grudge would not be helpful. 

In the end we discovered the truth.  The technicians had forgotten to put oil in the car after draining her life’s fluids.  They had used the wrong filter and as we drove away from a simple oil change we had no idea of the damage we were inflicting upon our trusted friend.  From a simple oversight to awful and irreversible consequences our once loved Toyota Corolla ended its useful life with the ignominious conditions of being forced to drive without oil.

In comparison to our lives how often do we drive and live without the “oil” that lights our way.  How often do we rely upon the efforts of others when all we have to do is check for ourselves, pull that dipstick out once in a while and check, it will save you the trauma of living with and through someone else's mistake.

Through the simple  effort of gauging our own levels we can prevent a multitude of errors inflicted upon us by others.  We have little or no control over what another does but we can certainly mitigate and minimize those effects that can have tragic results through self examination of our surrounding, our lives and our motivations.