Irony, Gotta Love It

Hi everyone,

Sometimes irony shows it's hand in unexpected ways.

I was laid off over a year ago from a job that I had held for over eight years.  This fact still makes me crabby.

I worked in a small, older office building.  It was in a run down part of town, next to an entrance to an Air Force Base.  The building was sort of like a small strip mall.  There was space for four small companies to have an office.  During the last few years all of the offices were occupied.  The man I worked for owned the building.

The tenants were all nice and friendly.  I worked in a mortgage company and next door was an escrow company.  Since those two businesses go hand in hand in Washington, I became friends with the women in the escrow office.  The owner of the escrow office also ran a small food bank out of one of the other offices.  The last office was occupied by a small church.  The pastor was an elderly black man and as sweet as could be.

It was great.  The food bank would pick up donations from local grocery stores, one of which would send along the flowers and plants that were fading and slightly wilted.  They food bank would put them in big boxes outside their door and give them away for free.  It gave me a warm feeling working with nice people like that.  People that were generous and considerate.

As the sub prime mortgage fiasco hit it's stride our company began to have fewer and fewer customers.  And since the escrow office derived a significant portion of it's business from us, they began to falter too.  And since the owner of the escrow company owned the food bank, that business went down too.  The pastor never had much of a congregation and he left as well.  Within six months the office building was empty and four businesses had died.

Sometimes when driving to my mother in law's home we pass by my old office.  While driving past on Mother's Day we noticed the building was undergoing some renovations.  The building had been sold and the new owners were making some changes.  This made me curious so I decided to do a little investigating.  With a little poking around on the internet I started to put the pieces together and figured out who the new owners were and...what the new business would be.

My old office, the place where four small business had succumbed, is going to be a crematorium. 

Now I understand that some may not see the irony in this, but I sure do.  And a small part of me is kind of happy.

Next time will be bright and cheery, I promise.  ;o)
Judy