Several weeks ago Marie Stoica passed away on her 89th birthday. She had been out to dinner with her family and suffered a fatal heart attack.
I consider myself fortunate to have known Marie if even for a short time. Marie was very hard of hearing and when you talked with her you had to shout and she was hard to understand unless you listened very carefully.
She was one of the original tenants along with her brother Pat so everyone knew her and she was well liked. One would describe her as a "sweet little old lady". Her kindness was immeasurable and that was evident in the fact that she befriended"The Duchess" the most hated person in the building(but that's another story for another time)They were friends for years and came to both the daytime and evening activities together. However, one afternoon while playing Bunco, Marie was really having trouble hearing and "the dutchess" proceeded to call her "stupid" . Needless to say Marie was mortified and highly embarrassed. I heard all about this incident when I came in that evening and hoped to speak to Marie , but I didn't get the chance for almost 6 weeks. When she finally came down I was able to reassure her that she was welcome and that she could sit with the other tenants and not have to worry about being harassed.
On the day she died her brother Pat went to confront- the duchess. Basically, what he said was this-" My sister was your friend and you treated her terribly. She loved you like a sister and you broke her heart. Now your chance to apologize is gone and I hope you have to live with this the rest of your miserable life.
She broke down in tears and only God knows if she was truly contrite.
Charlene reminded me of the first lesson- "In this building we are surrounded by death the best way to deal with it is "for those you liked remember them with fondness and for those you didn't be glad they're gone!
The Duchess gave us the second lesson- do not speak in harshness and haste as you may never get to apologize for it
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