Paper

We got some bad news regarding one of the women who works in my office. While the rest of us were coming down from a long weekend they were dealing with the death of a son.

It’s very sad and very sudden and another argument never letting your children near a gun. Never. There are no reasons for children to have access to a gun, ever. “But…” NO, you say “What about…” NO , Yeah, but..., NO. None whatsoever. No child “needs” a gun and now one child who had a gun has nothing and his family no longer has him.

Children don’t need to know how to handle a gun, they don’t need to know how to take care of a gun, and they don’t need to know how to use a gun. They don’t even need to know you have one and they most certainly do not need their own. Never, never, never, never. If your child does not have access to a gun they can not shoot themselves while they are cleaning it.

I went over lunch to go get the family a card. The email we got also suggested food prep too and I may do that – no pork though, which means my meat loaf is out – which is officially earmarked for Broskey and Alphagal but I think that death in the family trumps birth in the family when it comes to offerings of food. Moot point though, the loaf is porky.

Back to the card. I did not know the sympathy card industry has become so detail oriented; it’s been a while since I needed a sympathy card (Thank God) and I had a hard time finding a simple card expressing non-specific sympathy. There was “Sorry Your Grandma Died” cards, “Sorry your Grandmother Died” cards, “Sorry your Great Uncle Died” cards, "Sorry your Dad Died”, “Sorry your Father Died” and on and on. I also saw Sorry your Son Died but it was a little more reality based than I was prepared to deal with at the time and about enough to make me break down in the middle of the drug store and I didn’t want that. I also didn’t want to buy a cheap, drug store bought “Sorry Your Son Died” card, if you are going to be that specific about the loss, you should at least go to Hallmark.

In between the “Sorry your Blood Kin Died” cards were interspersed “Sorry Your Dog Died” cards. I love my pets as much as the next guy, but damn, it just didn’t seem appropriate to have a sympathy card marking the death of somebodies Gramma sharing space with a sympathy card marking the death of a Labradoodle. It’s just not right.

I think they needed to reorganize the section. I found it off putting and I have sent people sympathy cards for their pets.

Card over thought, bought, taken out to the car. I tried to address my card. I had the street address and her name but not the husbands. I went back to work after lunch and asked some one I thought would know and they did not.

Me – I was addressing the card and I didn’t have her husbands name. What is his name?
They – Um, Joe?
Me – What is Joe’s last name?
They – Um….And family?

I ended up deciding to just address it to “Sally Surveyor and Family”. I don’t like it that way though; it seems to disregard the husband’s loss. I would have preferred addressing it to either “Mr. and Mrs. Joe Blow” or “Ms. Sally Surveyor and Mr. Joe Blow”. I wish I didn’t have to address anything.