My Colleague Died of COVID-19 and This is What I Learned about Life
Shocking but true.
This is heartbreaking.
On August 24, 2020, I called him, and to my surprise, he received the call and told me that he was taken to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Holy Family Hospital in the city as his condition worsening.
I told him, ‘Everything will be alright, don’t worry.’
Then, on September 03, 2020, I got a phone call from our HR dept. in the afternoon informed me that my colleague Mr. Shyamal Biswas passed away a few hours ago.
Suddenly my mind went blank.
I thought I heard him wrong as I asked again, ‘What happened?’ He said, ‘Shyamal da died of COVID-19, he is no more.’
The man I talked to a few days ago is no more on earth. I don’t know how to react to such heartbreaking news. I was completely blank. Later, when I was forwarding the contact info of his son to one of my colleagues, I noticed that my fingers were trembling in shock.
I know death is inevitable, and I am going to meet that one day. But I felt so vulnerable knowing the sudden death of my colleague due to coronavirus.
I realized that COVID-19 is not a joke, and life is too fragile in the end.
I am writing this post to share my grief and let all of you know what I learned from my colleague’s sudden death of COVID-19.
From March 2020, due to the coronavirus pandemic, my office turned to work-from-home. Only a few of our colleagues used to go to the office physically. Mr. Shyamal Biswas was one of them. As he looked after our store-department, he frequently went to the office to supply necessary items to other colleagues at the office.
Our office has taken the necessary precaution to contain coronavirus, including handwashing with sanitizers, temperature checking, and spraying disinfection-sprays before entering the office.
But despite all these measures, my colleague Mr. Shyamal Biswas got infected by the coronavirus and faced an untimely death. I don’t know how he got this, but in the end, it took away his life.
And, when people around the world start ignoring social distancing, I got the lesson that this is not the right thing to do.
Pandemic is not a joke
Pandemic is not a joke. And, you cannot ignore precautions including masks, sanitizer, personal safety, etc. by saying that other people are not doing it.
Your life is yours. It’s your responsibility to keep yourself safe and secure.
I understand people get bored with all that coronavirus thing as they are showing how dumb they can be, ignoring health-safety rules imposed by the governments. But, you must realize that the coronavirus pandemic is real, and it can cost your life if you determine to remain dumb about it.
You are not going to live forever
We pretend that nothing will happen to me. All the other people will die, but I am going to survive somehow.
We never actually believe that we will die too, and it can be anytime soon. My colleague’s death made me realize this truth once again.
I am not going to live forever. I am going to die too, as no one can escape death. Thinking about death is not at all a bad thing because it can keep you grounded, making you a self-conscious person.
Nothing stops, the show goes on
Sometimes we take ourselves for granted. We think we are the center of the world, believing we have a grand impression on the people around us.
We overestimate ourselves. The harsh truth is nobody cares about you. If you die today, the world will forget you by tomorrow.
The only people who will remember you a few days more is your family — not your boss, your colleagues, your friends, no one. Your death means nothing to this cruel world.
Nothing will stop for you, even for a second, the show will go on perfectly without you.
It is hard for me to believe that I will never see my colleague again. And, he is never going to ask me, ‘Mamun Bhai, how are you?’
I pray to almighty for the salvation of his departed soul and request you to do the same.
I also request you to be mindful of your existence on earth. Take care of yourself and your family.
Thank you for reading.