Wyman

On every site you work on there are people who give off good energy and others that suck the energy out of the air like a black hole. My friend Wyman was one of the positive ones. Wyman was a quiet and happy little guy from Newfoundland who ran the forklift on our site. He was an Ironworker through our hall too and I think he had been on our site since the beginning. Last weekend Wyman and another guy from our crew smelled a bit like alcohol so they were refused entry to the plane up here and subsequently fired. For anyone planning on coming up here take note that at Kearl alcohol is a no no and you aren't even allowed on the plane if you are thought to have had any (they do have bars and allow alcohol in the Fort Mac camps). So even though it was a hot and humid day in Edmonton and even though their flight wasn't leaving until later the nice cool beer that they had together finished off their employment. Perhaps getting fired was a blessing for Wyman and perhaps it was a curse. You see he died yesterday morning of a heart attack back in his home at 58 years of age. I say blessing because his last week was spent with his family. I say curse because getting fired for something so completely assenine and demeaning probably caused the stress that killed him. Either way a good man is dead today. Wyman was a Newfy as I mentioned and was gentle and quiet. I remember in my first few days I was told to spot for him while he moved loads around the site. So I confided in him: "Wyman Buddy, I don't really know how to spot. Why don't I just pretend to spot and you just move the stuff where ever you want?" his response was typical Wyman. It was quiet and gentle and sincere: "That's exactly what I intended by! You just keep people out of my road and that'll be all the help I'll need." he had on that subtle Wyman smile and his eyes sparkled with some hidden mischief. We got along famously after that. I never saw the day when Wyman was in a bad mood or was surley. Each day I'd see him he'd give a smile and say "How are you today, by?". 'By' is a Newfy thing that means 'boy' which is a friendly thing like when a NovA Scotian says: 'buddy' or a Brit says 'mate'. Just a friendly term of endearment that lets you know that the speaker considers you a friend. And that is just what Wyman was to me and to so many others...a friend. I know everyone is going to die eventually. I know that there is no plan that we on earth are aware of which tells us in advance when our time will expire. And yet it always comes as such a shock when a person passes. Especially when they weren't that old and they were a really good person. When we heard on site yesterday the whole crew were more or less silent. When we passed each other we'd say: "Did you hear about Wyman?" and we shared the moment in sadness and silence. You see to us he was still one of our crew, one of our team and one of our little family. He is already sorely missed. Well Wyman old friend, rest in peace by! :'(