Tim and I met by chance. We were working for the same company, but in two different departments. I could look over from my station and see him when he was down at the end for his line doing his hourly checks. I worked in the quality control department checking the finished product, while he was in the extrusion department. We admired each other for quite some time before either of us even spoke. Because of the different departments, we went in and got off at different times and took breaks at different times. Needless to say, it was hard for us to catch each other.
Work could be very hectic for us in QC if someone’s mold was slightly off. We would get parts that had many flaws and had to be scraped. On this particular day it was horrible. The molders were mad at us for scraping their parts but, if we sent them on to the buyer it would be our tails. I had my headphones on doing my job and next thing I know someone was up in my face threatening me because I was doing my job right, I was scraping his parts that were defected. It was a very stressful day. I gathered the trash and took it to the dumpster at the end of my shift and fell trying to get it thrown out.
This just wasn’t my night. Finally, time to clock out and go home. I didn’t stop and talk to anyone, I tucked my tail and went straight to my car after that horrible day. There was a note under my windshield wiper when I got there. I thought to myself, what now. It was from him. It said, you are beautiful! My heart melted and somehow my horrible day just got so much better. When I walked up to my station the next afternoon, there was one single red rose sitting there. No note. I immediately looked over to him and he had a grin from ear to ear.
It was then that I realized that I was falling for this man and had never even talked to him. On his way to break, he stopped over at my station and whispered to me that he really wanted to get to know me and gave me a piece of paper with his phone number on it. From then on out, if we weren’t working, we were on the phone. He had tried for days to try to get me to come over to his house after work one day and watch a movie with him. Only problem, we worked second shift and didn’t get off until 11:00pm but we were working 7 days a week at the time. A few weeks later I finally gave in.
We watched Boondock Saints, it was his favorite. Now we seem to be inseparable. So inseparable that exactly six months later we got married. We were soul mates. I had never been as happy to be able to spend every day with the man that stole my heart. I moved in with him and couldn’t image how I could be any happier. I felt so privileged to find the love that I had in him. Five short months later my life turned upside down. Tim and two others were in a tragic car accident. Tim was taken by ambulance to Vanderbilt Medical Center were six days later I was told that he would never wake up.
He is only 23, how could this happen, I thought to myself. Just a few hours later Tim died as a result to all of his injuries. Then came the hard part, going home without him, planning his funeral, and telling his children what had happened. Loosing Tim was by far the hardest thing that I have ever been through, but it has made me the person that I am today. It has made me appreciate love and reciprocated it with everything inside of me. It has now been six years since his passing and I recently became engaged to be married.
I often get fussed at because I take to many pictures and tell him that I love him all the time because that is all that I have left of Tim, pictures and memories. It has made me a stronger women and passionate about becoming a nurse to help people that are in his situation. I lost one of the best people that I have ever met and losing him it taught me to love, accept, and never take anyone or anything for granted and to tell everyone what they mean to you. Never assume that they know because you may never get the chance to tell them again.
