A belated farewell to a colleague and friend

Sometimes when I send out the e-mail messages to share a new post on my blog, I receive a “response” to each one saying

Delivery Status Notification (Delay)

Delivery incomplete

There was a temporary problem delivering your message to xxxxx@yyyyy.zzz. Gmail will retry for 47 more hours. You'll be notified if the delivery fails permanently.

Since I send out more than 125 such messages each time I post, I set up an automatic rule that files these delivery status notices in a separate folder, bypassing the inbox.

For some reason, the other day I was looking through that folder and noticed a message that said

Delivery Status Notification (Failure)

Message not delivered

There was a problem delivering your message to j92554@aol.com. See the technical details below

And another that said

Delivery Status Notification (Failure)

Address not found

Your message wasn't delivered to j92554@aol.com because the address couldn't be found. Check for typos or unnecessary spaces and try again.

That address was the personal e-mail account of an old Pfizer colleague. I tried sending an e-mail to his old Pfizer e-mail address and that, too, bounced back. So I called the phone numbers I had for him. The Pfizer phone number was no longer connected, but I had a personal cell phone and I left a message there, including my home (Riverdale) phone number.

When we returned from Sharon there was a voice mail on our home phone from Joe’s wife Teresa. I had never met her but Joe had spoken of her and their two children often. He had also told me many stories of growing up in an Italian family in Boro Park, Brooklyn, where he worked during his younger years in a local hardware store frequented by traditional Jewish families and hence knew a good deal about the Jewish calendar and traditions.

I called Theresa and she told me that Joe had passed away during a trip to the Caribbean. I found the following on a memorial page, and especially appreciated the last line:

Joe was a director of Information Strategy and Analytics, Clinical Informatics and Innovation at Pfizer where his career spanned 30 plus years. During the course of his career he provided support, guidance and jokes to his colleagues.

I am still in touch with a number of Pfizer colleagues but no one had told me about this. Maybe they just did not know that I had remained friendly with Joe. His son was diagnosed with and treated for Mesenchymal Chondro Sarcoma of the talus (bone cancer) in 2014 and this was an additional connection for us. 

I can hardly imagine just how much his family misses him. I am honored to have known him as a colleague and a friend.

Love,

Rebecca