Old Co-Workers

You ever have one of those cool co-workers that you wish would just go from job to job with you? I have had several. When I started running a large company it was great because I could hire all of those guys to work for me (I even hired an old boss because I thought he was a good guy). However there are times when we must change jobs and those people do not get to come with us. Therefore you tend to lose touch but you wish you hadn't.

When I first moved to New Jersey, I worked in NYC at the World Financial Center for CIBC World Markets (all you Canadians know this company). I quickly made friends with the guys and girls there and we had a great bunch. They showed me around downtown and I learned alot about the city from them as most of them were natives New Yorkers. There was this kid named Gary Shamay. He was 21 and was cool to hang around with. The whole gang went out to have drinks after work several times and Gary would crack me up. Gary became a good friend to me. All of us in the department used Yahoo IM to talk through out the day but when I left the company I deleted everyones name from my Messenger List. Man, do I wish I had not done that. I spent many moments wishing I could contact Gary and some others to see how they were doing. I was hoping that they would contact me.

Well, yesterday it happened. One of the guys IM'd me out of the blue. I thought "this is great, now I can find these guys". So my friend Wellington started to tell me about his life. I then asked him about the others and how they were doing. He informed me about this guy and that, then he dropped a brick on me. "Gary died in the WTC." This has really got me down right now. What a loss. I hate it that I was not there for his family. I hate that I didn't get to talk to him again. He was only 23 when he died. Gary was working at the now infamous Cantor Fitzgerald on the 101st floor. September 11th was one of the scariest days of my life as I stood on the streets of NYC and watched it all happen. I also was allowed near the wreckage to help my clients at the time 3 days later. As I looked at it all, I reflected back to the times that Gary, Francis, Paul, Ken, Wellington, and me used to sit right where that wreckage was and eat lunch. I could also see our old office with the windows blown out. I was deeply saddened at all those great memories that were now always going to be associated with the day Sept. 11th, 2001. Little did I know that Gary was still there waiting on someone to find him and lay him to rest.

My thoughts and prayers are with your family Gary. You were a good friend. I wish I could have been a better one.