Today I helped a woman with registering a class for her child over the phone. It turned out she was already in the system, so I started verifying information to keep everything up to date. I got to the emergency contact part, and one of the names was what I can only guess the recently deceased husband of the woman on the phone. She could hardly say anything, and barely got through in telling me he had passed. You don't hear pure grief and loss like that in a voice too often.

It made me realize that almost everyday, this woman has had to confront and accept the fact that someone she loved intensely is gone forever. That happened early this morning, and it's now past midnight and it hasn't left me. I know death is a part of life, but that never makes it easy.

The next call was someone with questions. We ended up joking around.

Life is a strange and complex mess.