The Celebration of Life Party that I threw for Dennis on Friday January 7th turned out to be a total blast. It was great seeing people I had not seen in years. The love in the room that night was unbelievable. It's nice to know that we have friends like this; we don't always see everyone a lot, but when they're needed, they are there for me/us. Dennis would have been very pleased with the turnout of people.
It's now the week after the party, and I'm starting to wonder: where did everyone go? The past two weeks have been filled with people dropping by the house, people phoning me to see how I'm doing—it's almost been too much. I can only do so many social things. But I have noticed that this week, it's changing. Not too many people are dropping by now, the phone is not ringing as much. It seems kind of strange. I had a phone meeting with Michelle and Claire from the office, to discuss when I'll be returning to work. Before placing the phone call, I had decided that I needed to set a deadline for being off and a definite date for returning to work. Once I started the phone call, the first thing I said was: "I've only got two things to discuss. When I am going to return and how do I get paid for my time off in January? I know I've got some vacation time that I'm carrying over, but there's not that much to cover the amount of time I've been off this month. If I agree to use all the outstanding vacation time, can the company cover the rest of the time as paid bereavement leave?"
Michelle said, "That sounds fine to me; we can certainly give you additional bereavement time because you're a long-time employee and we want to do what we can for you. You said you had two things to bring up. What's the second item?"
"I've decided that I'm coming back to work on Tuesday, January 18, the day after Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday on Monday the 17th. I've set a deadline and I want to stick to it. I don't really know how it's going to go once I get back, but that's the date that I've set."
"Are you sure you want to come back that quickly? You can have more time if you need it, Rick," said Michelle.
"I'm not too sure about anything at the moment, Michelle. But I can't stay away forever. I have to get back to some kind of routine whether I'm ready or not. I have to try and we'll just see how it goes. That's the way I'm looking at it right now."
"Okay, it's your decision. We can't wait to get you back, but I can tell you, if things just don't work out yet, you can have more time. I'm in agreement—let's just see how it goes. Is there anything else you want to discuss while we're all on the phone?"
"Not from this end; I've covered what I wanted to talk to you about. I'll see everyone on Tuesday the 18th."
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