Here's kind of a sad story that happened at work today.
I work next to an older guy (he's 61) who's an engineer. I like him, he's pretty cool, we talk about stuff all the time. But for the last week or so, he's been seeming... a little off. I thought he might be angry about something, and today I think we figured out what it is.
Well, turns out he hasn't showed up for work in 2 days, and nobody's heard from him, nobody knew what happened, so a bunch of guys went to his house. He was half-dressed, wandering around his house, couldn't remember people's names, couldn't remember what day of the week it was. Pretty sure he'd had a stroke about 2 weeks ago... he'd missed a day feeling bad... and it wasn't severe enough for him to think anything of it. But for the last two weeks, he'd gotten progressively worse, until he couldn't remember enough to come to work. He was confused. He's a heavy smoker, heavy drinker, eats fast food every day. Can't say he shouldn't have seen that coming.
The sad part? He's a single guy. No family, no next of kin, no emergency contacts that anyone can find. We know he has children. Nobody knows their names, where they live, if they even know he's still alive. He is a contractor... and he has no health insurance. Probably not much retirement, either. I feel so bad for this guy, but there's nothing I can do.
I don't ever want to end up like that.