Merry Christmas (a day late!)

I'd like to hope that everyone had a very happy and merry Christmas. But...that is not always the case.

It was not but a couple years ago...that I worked a 24-hour shift on Christmas Eve, and we were awoken at about 6:00am to respond to a house for a "man not breathing". Well...no shit, he wasn't breathing...because this 82-year-old man had hung himself from the second-floor balcony with a piece of rope...but when we got there...to "assure" the Police that he was absolutely "dead"...in the background, on his stereo, this old man had 1 song playing, looped, over and over, Con te Partiro", by Andrea Bocelli. The song is popular, we've all heard it (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qhh8MaRnzMc). I knew the song, but didn't know what it meant, or why he would have it playing, so I looked it up online. And then I cried. Basically, the song means, if I translated it correctly from Italian, "I lost my love, so I have nothing else to live for". I realized how sad this whole situation was. This old man (as I have summized), had recently lost his wife, of a long time...and this was his first Christmas without her. And he couldn't handle the whole ordeal. Being without his wife, of many years, on Christmas. It made me truly realize that the Holiday Season is not always happy for everyone.

Anyway...time for bed. Sorry to leave this hanging. I'll post soon. :-)