美國來的電郵

怎會這樣? 怎會這樣? 很難過。

Hi WF,

I’m afraid that I’m writing with some very, very sad news. John Partridge passed away last week. He was diagnosed only four weeks ago with a brain tumor and had two successful surgeries to remove a lot of the tumor. It was malignant, but treatable, and John was able to go home from the hospital after his second surgery. He was doing great, taking walks, joking around, sending out emails. Unfortunately, after being home for a few days things took a turn for the worse, there were some complications from the surgery and John suffered a bleed in his brain and two massive strokes. He died last Wednesday, and the funeral was Saturday.

His wife Leigh, Bryan and the girls are doing well. Leigh was incredibly strong throughout the whole ordeal and even came to the firm in person to give everyone the news that John had died. She was so courageous, so full of grace throughout this whole awful ordeal.

Here at the office we are all doing OK, just so, so sad. It’s like a hole has been ripped in the heart of the firm. But John wanted us to go on. We had very specific conversations with him before he went into his surgery and he wanted us to carry on if something happened to him. We met with Leigh last week and she also wants us to continue on, so now we’re just figuring out how to do that.

WF, I hope you know how much John cared for you. He talked all the time about trying to get you back here working with us. He thought that you were incredibly talented, and he really missed you not being here.

I’m sorry to give you this news in an email, but I knew that you would want to know. We still all want you to come back, and know that you’ll always have a home here if you want to. I’ll talk to you soon. S