This morning I had a contractor onsite for some work. When he was done his work I escorted him outside to leave. As I headed back toward the doors I heard someone calling to me. I didn't recognize him at first. He was an older gentleman, moving with some effort toward me, asking if I was an employee here. When I told him I was and asked how I could help him he introduced himself to me and started telling me he needed some help.
I instantly recognized him once he was closer and told me his name. He had been the Vice President of the company when I started here back in 1987. He and the other big cheeses had sold the company 25 years ago and gotten their golden parachutes. He retired shortly after that a wealthy man.
Quite a blast from the past for me.
I told him who I was an that I remembered him. He claimed to remember me, but I doubt that. The thing that really got me while we spoke was how very old he looked to me. He said he was 83 now but he sure looked and moved like a much older man. When he left the place decades ago he was in good physical condition. Someone who was decisive and capable. Now, not so much.
He had an issue that our HR helped him with. Then we stopped outside and spoke for a while. He said he has slight dementia and has some bad moments at times. He said his wife has very bad dementia and is in very bad health. We spoke about all the people we once worked with and where they were now. It was nice to reminisce with someone from the old days.
All the while we spoke, I kept thinking how old and slow he was. How he was not anything like I remembered. It was kind of unnerving.
Sometimes it is odd when you meet up with a person you haven't seen for a long time. In this instance, a quarter century. The drastic change was a lot to take in. 83 years old doesn't seem that old to me but he sure hasn't aged that well. It makes me wonder what I'll be like when I'm that old. I hope I'm not so frail.
Before he left I decided to let him know about an incident that I instigated way back in the early 1990's. I let him know that the one day when he drove in and there was a little red truck parked in his private VP parking space, that it was my doing. That day I had played a joke on one of my coworkers, the guy I referred to as G in all the old G stories on this blog. I had noticed that G didn't lock his truck door so I snuck out and pushed his truck into the VP parking spot (it was a manual transmission). Then I waited.
Sure enough there was a call over the intercoms companywide that whoever was parked in the VP parking spot was to go out and immediately move their vehicle. HR was investigating! Old G was hot when he found out it was him. Plus his original spot was taken and he had to park farther away.
That was fun.
When I told the old VP he instantly remembered that day. He had a good laugh. I told him that was how us 20-somethings played pranks on each other all the time back in those days. He got a smile out of it today. Back then, he wasn't amused. Not at all.
As he left I watched him and wondered about all the people who have come and gone from this place. I wondered how many of them would look at me with the same reaction I had with Mr. VP. This is the kind of encounter that will keep you thinking for a long time after.
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