Melancholy

I don't know what the five stages of grief are, but I am in the melancholy stage now. When I heard my contractor, David Duncan, had passed away suddenly, I was in disbelief and shock for a long time. I really expected to get a text from him or see him walk up the front walk to the house at any time. When I got home yesterday, the house was quiet since no one was working. It was sort of surreal. I walked around the house, admiring his work, knowing that there was not a part of it he had not built; everything had his fingerprints on it. He has 4 guys doing the work, but he made sure everything was done right before the end of each day. David sometimes had his dog, Simone, with him and would let her into our backyard. Axle had a blast playing with Simone. We left Bella in the pen because we were not sure how Bella would react to Simone. Simone would stay in David's truck for most of the time. I would take a dog treat to Bella and Axle, and one to Simone while she waited in the truck.

I knew David in High School, but we were not close friends. He was the football jock, and I was the geeky car guy, so our paths did not cross often. When I started looking for a Contractor after the flood, his name came up, and I knew he was the guy for the job. We have become good friends over the last few months. He was an honest and fair guy to work with, and I trusted him wholeheartedly. It was fun talking about our High School days and the friends we had in common, even though our paths rarely crossed back then. I will miss our conversations. I pray for his family and the guys he had working for him. He will be missed.