By "an insignificant soul"
A colleague, Andrew, began to have headaches at the end of January. It took about 3 weeks to discover that he had a brain tumour and needed urgent surgery. Andrew's father died of cancer and had spent a year travelling the world because he had feared that he never wanted to be like his father who had always put off enjoying life until later because it was not meant to be. Andrew had a successful operation and within days was at home recovering. However, the tumour was malignant. Andrew was devastated but determined to fight. On Tuesday 18 April Andrew's stepfather phoned the office and explained that Andrew had been in a semi-coma for a few days and his condition was critical. He suggested that colleagues visit to say goodbye. Everyone was devastated by this news. My manager intended to go immediately, I agreed to go with him because I felt helpless sitting at my desk worrying about him. It was awful seeing a body that was unrecognisable as a person I had associated with him for many years. Andrew had a huge bandage on his head. His eyes were struggling to focus. He had a tracheotomy in his throat so he could not speak and a massive bandage on his right hand to stop him from pulling his drips out. The left hand side of his body was paralysed. It was a terrible sight but I put this aside and spoke to Andrew as I would have done if he was healthy. As I went to leave and said goodbye to him, he raised his right hand to wave bye to me. Andrew's mother was amazed, this was the first time he had done this since going into a coma. I felt really pleased that he was aware that I had been with him.