Employee of the Month

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There are a lot of gut rehab projects around Buffalo.

Huge buildings that used to be home for thriving businesses are sitting empty, waiting to be re-worked, or torn down.

I don’t know why, but it always depresses me!

It also interests me immensely as I often wander around, looking for signs of life.

It’s almost as though I’m one of those characters in an Armageddon movie who picks through the debris left by all those who have perished.

(Well, that’s depressing).

Yesterday I spotted a plaque for ‘Employee of the Month’ which was awarded to someone named Phyllis Harris, back in 1991.

I was obviously in Phyllis’ office as I spotted a bill with her name on it from National Fuel.

Phyllis didn’t leave much behind, but she didn’t take the tiny plaque with her name engraved on it.

I wondered if it once meant something to her. 

Did they give her a $20 gift card to JC Penny?

Did she go home and announce it to her family?

Where is she now?

I’m thinking Phyllis was an administrative assistant of some sort. I’m sure she stressed about getting important things done every day. She was good at her job.

And the building itself seemed worn out.

Stains on the ceiling tiles, mold on the walls, and the guys in the demo crew were swinging hammers to knock things down.

Depressing!

The facility was also affiliated with the former home of a pretty important hospital in Western New York, and I don’t want to say much more, but I was born there.

I walked the empty hallways, thinking of all the patients who received great news…

…or devastating news…

…as they traveled down the very same halls.

Everything breaks down.

Eventually.

But it’s all in the living.

Phyllis won the employee of the month.

I hope there were cupcakes.

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