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Adam died 12 years ago this past Monday.
I just wanted to pay my respects again. I think about Adam every year on the anniversary of his death. I also think about his wife Anne. I hope she is well.
I shared a cube with Adam at Reva Systems, the RFID startup that failed in 2008. Adam was a tech writer at Reva. I used to be a tech writer myself, so we shared our war stories with each other. He was so funny. Hilarious really. Just seeing him scowl in the office made me smile. He played up the ornery part of his personality to great effect. It was like working with W.C. Fields. It made the boring, staid aspects of our office work so much easier to endure.
I was invited by Adam to come to a kitchenware party at his house in Wayland on the weekend that he had the motorcycle accident. He wanted me to meet his wife, since she was also adopted. I stayed late at the party and was there when Anne got the call (Adam went on that fateful last ride while Anne hosted her party). It was a shock, but it didn't seem possible in that moment that Anne's life would be forever turned upside down.
On Sunday there was an operation on Adam. On Monday a number of us from the office drove to the hospital in RI where Adam was in intensive care. We were there when the hospital staff told Anne that Adam was brain dead. The decision was made to pull life support. We were invited to see Adam, now dead, in his hospital room.
Seeing Adam lying there, as if in a dream, is an image that stays with me now for the rest of my life.
Time goes by but the memories don't fade. The shock of a life cut so brutally short never lose its edge. I feel sorry for the elderly woman and her family, too. It's a tragic footnote to her life.
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Originally Posted by cpederse
