As you have read in my blog before….business is not easy. We try at every step along the path to provide good value to our clients and to take care of our staff. We work hard but we also work safely and take every precaution so that those in our care will be safe.
None of this mattered last week when one of our beloved employees, Don Smith made a miss-step, fell only five feet and lost his life from a blow to his head when it hit the concrete.
We have been through barn fires, financial meltdown and almost every imaginable challenge in trying to keep our ship afloat but all prior difficulties pale to the loss of an employee in such unpredictable circumstances.
Our hearts are heavy as we grieve together as a staff which has become like a family to us. We grieve for Don and for each other. But most of all we grieve for Don’s father Bud Smith who has recently lost his wife to cancer and now his only child…and is left alone.
Don was buried in a little cemetery in Milford, out near Keji along side of his mother, Shirley. It could not have been a more perfect place, close to nature and in the wilds of the province. This is what Don loved….nature, and wild life. He was a compassionate, articulate and kind man, always cheerful. While we were taking part in the service I thought I heard the call of a lonely moose off in the distance.
The pastor spoke some of the most comforting words I have ever heard at a funeral service. He seemed inspired at his choice of words, prayers and scripture. Don was a self proclaimed atheist but it seems impossible that he is not now in a better place with his Lord, and reunited with his mother.
We are thankful to have known you Don and in sorrow that we have lost you in the prime of your life with so much yet to live. We do not profess to understand, only accept.
It is only right to weep for those you love. Don, you were loved. And we weep.
RIP – Don Smith 1963 – 2011.
