My friend Norma died last week. It’s surreal because when we
left for a trip she had been declared cancer free. So I was gone when the
cancer came back, when she had her second surgery, when she was moved to
hospice and when she died.
It all happened so fast.
It’s such a cliché, when someone dies, to say, “Everyone loved her,” but with Norma, I think it was true. I've been trying to put my finger on what it was about her that was so attractive. I think it's because, Norma was real.
As the wife of the president of an international organization she could have been uppity. She could have put on a persona, someone she thought that person should be, or how she thought that person should act. She could have remained distant and uninvolved or had expectations of how she should be treated, how she should be served.
But Norma was just… Norma.
She would come in my office and sit down to chat, not because she wanted inside information on an employee or to lobby for her husband. She’d come in to ask about my boys. She’d call each by name and listen to the good and the bad. She cared about me and about them and her concern was real.
She invited us to lunch and served us leftover soup. How awesome is that? Not only that she did it, but that she admitted it. She wasn't worried about what we might think, there was just soup and it needed eaten up, so she served it.
She hosted a Christmas party every year for the office, even last year after just finishing chemo. She took her wig off so I could see her bald head. She was beautiful.
Norma was real. And I think she was loved because it can be hard to find real people, people without a mask, or an angle or agenda. I think she was loved because she reminded us of Jesus.
It all happened so fast.
It’s such a cliché, when someone dies, to say, “Everyone loved her,” but with Norma, I think it was true. I've been trying to put my finger on what it was about her that was so attractive. I think it's because, Norma was real.
As the wife of the president of an international organization she could have been uppity. She could have put on a persona, someone she thought that person should be, or how she thought that person should act. She could have remained distant and uninvolved or had expectations of how she should be treated, how she should be served.
But Norma was just… Norma.
She would come in my office and sit down to chat, not because she wanted inside information on an employee or to lobby for her husband. She’d come in to ask about my boys. She’d call each by name and listen to the good and the bad. She cared about me and about them and her concern was real.
She invited us to lunch and served us leftover soup. How awesome is that? Not only that she did it, but that she admitted it. She wasn't worried about what we might think, there was just soup and it needed eaten up, so she served it.
She hosted a Christmas party every year for the office, even last year after just finishing chemo. She took her wig off so I could see her bald head. She was beautiful.
Norma was real. And I think she was loved because it can be hard to find real people, people without a mask, or an angle or agenda. I think she was loved because she reminded us of Jesus.
So true, amen. I will miss our heart to heart talks. She truly cared. I loved her and it is hard to believe that she is gone. So fast.
ReplyDeleteyes Jeff so true of Norma always listening and interested in everyone she had contact with
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