Ever wonder why you were somewhere, then had the question answered?

I've been working for a company that is well outside my normal industry for more than 2 years now. I started there as a temp, and was hired on permanently shortly thereafter. I never felt like I belonged there, never felt a sense of permanence or allegiance to the company, but it was a paycheck.

I finally started working in the marketing department a year ago and had been having a wonderful time with a great new boss. However, we learned late last year that they were moving our jobs to corporate headquarters out of state, a place few if any of us really would want to move.

Well, this week is my last week, and as the transition has been happening, I had less and less work to do. I offered to help out the training manager with putting together some binders and other projects for an upcoming seminar she's doing.

Last Friday, as we worked together, she told me that she hadn't been feeling well for some time, and that she felt like there were "a ton of bricks" on her chest.

I told her that while I didn't want to scare her -- that was a similar description my Dad gave 12 years ago -- and he didn't see a doctor (famous last words: "I'll be fine") -- and that he had died suddenly several weeks later due to a heart problem.

Well, that got her attention -- she called her doctor, was asked to come in, and I didn't hear from her all weekend. Come to find out Monday morning she had had a heart attack!

I don't know why -- I guess because I figured if someone else had been there maybe they wouldn't have said what I said to her -- or had a similar experience to jump-start her into going in...but what if I hadn't been there? What if I had said nothing, or just said "oh, just rest up this weekend, you'll feel better"?

I suddenly felt like the time I spent at this company was worth it all...maybe, just maybe, my saying something had helped save a life, or just prevent her from having more damage done.

Of course most people know that chest pain is not something to play around with -- but when it's YOU -- do you think "Oh, it'll go away" or that "It can't happen to me".

Boy, I've been there a few times. I let a sore throat get so bad I couldn't eat -- and by the time I got to the Ear Nose & Throat specialist, I had absessed tonsils that were threatening to close my airway. Left untreated, the doctor said the "mortality rate was 40%". That got my attention, and my tonsils came out.

Have you been ignoring a sign?

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