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Twenty-sixth Job of Bob - YMCA Lifeguard Part VI - Date with fate post 34 - Last official day of work September 11, 2001
This entry was posted on 2/22/2011 1:30 AM and is filed under Jobs of Bob, Fate Fairies.
A 45 year old college junior, one fall morning in 2001, I was on my way to the University of Whitewater - Wisconsin. I was in my second semester there after transferring in from Madison Area Technical College. My mother had died of cancer in March of that year. It was an exhausting ordeal. I had put my job and college on hold for a semester to care for her. I had some medical training. All that remained from the battle to help Mom was her house in Janesville and her old car. I would stop by to check on the place on my way to UW-Whitewater on the commute from Green County.
On that particular morning, I was bringing an ancient house cat of mine over to the empty rambling house to let him live out his life until we decided what to do with the place. We were glad we saved the humble estate through the medical ordeal, (many people lose their homes at the end of life) but because she was so sick for so long it had fallen into shambles. We were now the owners of what other people who did not look at it close, might think was a blessing, but was in reality an expensive falling apart house to maintain. Any way, I decided to put some life back into the place and brought over a couple of cats from our farmette to sit in the window as they will do. I was there every day anyway; they would be easy to care for.
Sidney, the ancient "odd-yellow" (Mom's description) fuzzy Tom with the bent ear, would routinely get car sick when transported. The radio seemed to exacerbate his agony. So I rode to Janesville in silence with Sidney in his usual state of travel distress.
Taking the opportunity during the silent ride to make a couple calls, I dialed up "The Y." Having had nine pool supervisors in five years at the YMCA, I thought it best to give a call and remind them that this particular day would be the first day I would no longer be working for them. From experience, I imagined someone wondering why I did not show up. The 40 mile daily travel to Whitewater was just too grinding. There was no room to put another 40 mile commute to Madison to work at "The Y" as well. On a side note there was a couple supervisors I had never even met. I took the early shifts and I was long gone by the time they came to work at nine-ish. That is why I thought it best to remind someone I was actually done.
I got a hold of boss du jour and reminded her I would no longer be under her employ. There was a pause. "I remember," she said sadly. It sounded like she was crying. She said she wished I had given her more notice, but bid me good luck in a distressed weak sounding voice.
"Damn," I thought. I never bummed someone out so much before because I quit. I had only met the woman once."
When I pulled into town, it was eerily quiet. Something was fishy. On any given Tuesday, Janesville being the County Seat, would normally be bustling. I pulled into Mom's driveway and the street looked like a ghost town. One odd lawn mower ran off in the distance; the neighborhood was usually alive early in the a.m. with the retired crowd I lived amongst doing their daily minutia yard care.
I shoved Sidney into his new dwelling and paused to look back out to the street. It was like something out of those movies where everyone has died except one poor schlep. I kept Mom's old radio turned on in the kitchen for a burglar deterrent. News, sports, and "talk." The usual Chicago WGN voice was not on-air that morning.
A rather distressed unfamiliar voice came from the radio and said, "They are gone...both towers are gone...this is awful."
I had this uneasy feeling even with only that small bit of information that our lives had just changed for the rest of my lifetime at least. On the way to Whitewater when my thoughts got back to my daily toils it dawned on me. It wasn't me that had upset my boss. She must have been watching the television in the YMCA office.
It was September 11, 2001. Note: This blog "Jobs of Bob" Category does not list the jobs chronologically - I write about the experiences as they pop up in my memory and I often revisit an older job. Go to the Cooldadiomedia Web site and the Jobs of Bob Page for an ordered chronology.
Wisconsin Military Service Person Special Mention of the Week
(each week Cooldadiomedia mentions a Wisconsin service person killed in Iraq or Afghanistan)
Private First Class Timothy Robert Hanson, 23, Kenosha, Wisconsin, died on Monday, January 7, 2008 in Salmon Pak, Iraq. PFC Hanson was killed from enemy small arms fire while on guard duty in southeast Baghdad. He was assigned to 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division out of Fort Benning, Georgia. His job was as a mortar man. Hanson was born on June 15, 1984. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel noted Timothy grew up in Kenosha and attended Roosevelt Elementary School and McKinley Middle School before graduating from Indian Trail Academy High School in 2003. He studied history at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside but decided to enlist in the Army. Hanson is known for having lost 35 pounds in just a few months to meet the Army's weight requirements. Hanson entered the Army in April 2006 and was deployed to Iraq in March of 2007. Hanson had been a Boy Scout in his younger years. People remember Timothy as having acquired a fond interest in cinema; a definite movie buff; he was known to enjoy a vast spectrum of movie genres from foreign to romantic comedies. He took many movie DVDs along with him to Iraq. The Journal Sentinel went on to mention that during high school Hanson had a newspaper route for the Kenosha News; during college he worked as a ride operator at Six Flags Great America; and, he also worked in the dairy department at a Kenosha Pick 'n Save. After high school he attended Northern Michigan University for about a year before transferring to the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. He was remembered as a quiet kid but being very conscientious, mature, and passionate.
At the time of his death Timothy Hanson was survived by his father Robert Hanson; mother Susan (Woodworth) Hanson; sister Jennifer Clope; and, brother Andrew Hanson. Private First Class Timothy Hanson was the 85th Wisconsin military service person to die in Iraq since the spring of 2003.
As of this blog entry's posting date:
99,712 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
9,830 Iraqi Security Forces have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
4,439 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
1476 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
318 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
852 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
32,039 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
10,351 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
103 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
27 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
145 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
21 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
Wisconsin military service person special mention of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; washingtonpost.com; thehighground.org; Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs; iraqbodycount.org; www.defense.gov/news/casualty.pdf; and, icasualties.org.
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