She will be missed.

Last night I checked my work e-mail one more time before heading out on a couple of errands.  There was a message from my boss to all of us work-at-home employees.  He was sorry to share the news in an e-mail, but thought we should know as soon as possible.  One of our colleagues had died yesterday morning.

She had been away on a long-term medical leave, but nobody really knew what was wrong with her.  She was a really interesting character…always speaking up and refusing to be taken advantage of.

I didn’t know her extremely well, but I had seen glimpses of her life in brief conversations we’d had over the last few years.

She hated corporate life and corporate culture.

She had lived in Florida years back, but I’m not sure if she was born in the States or not.

In 2004, she had a Kerry bumper sticker on her car, and she’d been pushing big-time for Obama to be elected.

One year at Christmastime she wore little bells on the laces of her running shoes and jingled her way around the ninth floor.

She lived in the Beaches in Toronto with her daughter and said the thought of working from home was really appealing to her.  She just didn’t have enough space at home.  Maybe someday she would.

She was a smoker.

I hate to think of that cubicle on the ninth floor, cluttered with her work, her things, small pieces of her life.

I hope she knew that Obama was elected on Tuesday night.  I like to think she was just waiting to find out.

She will be missed.