For months I have been frustrated working with a particular somebody at work. My work atmosphere is very Type A, and this person was a couple steps behind - always. I knew this person was not a good fit, and continuously wondered why they had not been fired already. Yesterday she was fired. She was putting things in bags to leave, and me, being the blunder I am, asked what she was doing. She simply replied "They just fired me." It hit me like a giant fist in the stomach. I was too lame to respond appropriately, so I just froze, dropped my jaw, and left the room.

During the six months we worked together, she had confided in me about some of her personal problems, which included being jailed for child abuse, when, according to her, the child was lying, adult children abusing her privileges, the children's father slandering her in front of the children, and assorted issues like these. She had been working as a temp for two years prior to lending this job, and had not gone to the dentist in longer than that, since she did not have the insurance. She is also 59, so new skills probably aren't jumping out of the book at her.

Now, I know that everyone has problems. It's all relative. But the idea of this woman's life becoming instantly more difficult, while mine perhaps gets easier, really frazzled me. As frustrated as I was working with her, I still did not think her to be a bad person, nor did I wish bad things to happen to her. Then I remembered what a bad fit she was for that job. It was so weird...I didn't know what to feel. Relief at work improving? Sympathy at the rollercoaster of her life?

The day after I still can't forget that moment when she told me she was fired, and I still don't know how I feel about it. But I will probably always wonder what she decided to do when she woke up in the morning on August 21, 2010.