It's just a coffee cup on our break room shelf.
Coffee cups collect at medical offices, until you have cabinets full of them, far out of proportion to the number of people who work there. Staff bring them in, then forget them. Old employees leave them when they move on. Drug companies used to drop them off.
So as time goes by, coffee cups multiply. After a while the less-used ones get migrated to the top shelf.
This cup sits on the top shelf, at the front. I put it there.
It was brought in by a patient. Not as a gift. He just preferred drinking coffee out of mugs, and didn't like paper cups or plastic/metal containers. So he carried around his own mug, would buy coffee and mix it up in paper cups, then pour it in his mug when he got to his office. Or, in this case, my office. Any place with a stable surface.
I saw him only once, for something minor. He was in his late-30's, married, 2 kids, a business professional. Nice guy. He explained his coffee issue to me as he set his mug on my desk. I thought it was funny, but hell, we all have our own neurosis. We talked about his leg pain, worked out a treatment plan, and agreed to meet back in a month.
The day after he left I found his coffee cup in the exam room. He'd left it behind in a hurry to get out and make it to a meeting on time. I washed it and set it on the top shelf, to give back at his follow-up.
3 weeks later I came in one morning and began leafing through the overnight faxes. One was from the state coroner's office, requesting records. Mr. Cup had died that night of a massive heart attack.
It's been 2 years. When I'm having a bad day, I go look at the cup.
16 comments:
Modeh ani
amen
On a lighter note Gumby has turned himself in , saw it on CNN
This is so apropros, as we lost a friend and patient to a heart attack last night, completely unexpected. We don't have a cup though - just the memory of one (though his would have been a beer mug). Thanks for sharing.
SO young to die of a heart attack.
To me, the mark of a good blogger is someone who doesn't just write about the funny stuff in life, but someone who can write about the more somber moments as well. Sure, the main reason I check this blog every day is to see what funny story comes up next, but stories like this also pull me in as well.
In the 14 years I've been in retail, I've had a number of customers pass away. It's very numbing when you see their name in the obituaries and it usually feels like just the previous week they had been in, joking with me about something. One of the saddest was a guy who used to come in almost every day. You knew he was in the store because you could hear his laugh throughout the store, and he was constantly laughing, usually at himself.
It's sad when they go, but they also serve as reminders as to how much fun life can be sometimes.
There but for a coffee cup go us all.
Sudden deaths leave so many things like that behind...projects half finished, personal items left behind, meetings and appointments missed.
It makes you think though, how many people we interact with who might still remember us after we are gone. I bet he would be surprised that the busy neurologist he saw once remembers.
Wonderful post, I.B. ~
My thoughts are with you and the office staff. That is not easy. Nor should it be.
Thanks that make you go hmmm...
That is indeed a somber concept. Poor guy lost his cup and died. Makes me wonder if he had not lost his mug if he'd still be with us.
Dr. Grumpy, you are always catching us off guard. Keep up the good work.
Next time you catch yourself thinking that growing old sucks, just remember that it beats the alternative.
Lovely post. Thank you.
such a good reminder Grump!
I wish his wife could read this post. It would mean so much to her.
Cheryl
poignant.
thank you for washing his cup
Milo's comment is the sweetest comment, and his point is well taken: The small things matter. Thank you.
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