Sick Kids & a Lost Friend

My two youngers are home from school sick today. Both have sick eyes, croupy coughs, and 102 degree fevers. They make a great pair. Yesterday, my little Easy E got off the morning kindergarten bus and was sad as can be. Tired, weak, weepy. Pretty much a mess. He didn't want to do anything, eat anything, say anything - except "hold me." Poor kid. I didn't realize how sick he was until we drove him out to Imperial Tile to pick out our new master bathroom tile, and he fell asleep on the way and could barely muster enough energy to walk. Ryan ended up lugging him around most of the time. Not so fun with a 5-year old. As soon as we got back, he crashed on the carpet. And Rowan said her teacher "yelled" at her yesterday to stop coughing. Hmmm...not sure about that one.



So after I took the temps again this morning, I asked them both if anything hurt. Easton said, "Ya, my brain." Rowan said, "Me too."

Translation: headaches (or at least I think). So I gave them both a little Motrin for the fever and headaches and hopefully a day of rest will help kick whatever little bug they picked up. Maybe some kind of flu I'm guessing.
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On another note, and a sad one at that, Ryan's long-time former employee and friend, Orlando, whom we fired a year ago after discovering that he had embezzled boatloads of money from us through a whole series of schemes, passed away last night from pneumonia and a compromised immune system.

The saga of the last year is too long and unnecessary to rehash, but suffice it to say that it was a horrible experience all the way around - devastating in so many ways.

Well, yesterday afternoon Ryan took a call from our head handyman, who also knew Orlando very well. He told Ryan that Oly (that was the nickname he went by) was in the hospital and only had maybe a day left to live. So Ryan quickly got in touch with Pete, Oly's nephew, and found out where he was. Ryan let Pete know that he wanted to come and visit Oly and let him know that he forgave him. The family was in tears and so grateful and touched that Ryan would come by and express his love and forgiveness after all that had happened. We both felt undeniably that he needed to go.

So last night, Ryan drove over to the west side and paid his last respects to his old friend. He was sleeping or unconscious while Ryan was there, but Ryan talked to him and prayed with him and said his goodbyes. Then just after 9:00 last night, Ryan got a text from Pete saying that Orlando had just passed.

It's funny how things that seemed so monumental (and were so monumental at the time), suddenly become really unimportant in the grand scheme of things. I cried last night when I saw the text. Even though the end of that relationship was so, so bad, when Ryan and I look back on the whole 8 years we knew Orlando, there was so much good. Orlando was always happy, and had such an upbeat sense of humor. His personality was charismatic and he got along so well with everyone in our office. Truly, he was a great friend to my dad, Ryan's dad, my Aunt Laurie and Lacey, and especially to Ryan all those years. It's just too bad that it ended like it did.

So today we are hoping and praying that he is at peace on the other side and that his family will find comfort in knowing that he is at rest. And now we will move on as well and stop worrying about if and how we might ever collect on the unpaid debts, and worry more about how we can make a difference.