Dear Dan...

If you have followed this blog for any length of time, you should be familiar with my fellow convenient employee Dan. Dan with his no-nonsense people skills and his inability to take crap from anyone. The same Dan with his erroneous "Security" sticker plastered to the front of his name badge, in hopes of scaring off some argumentative baboon...er, customer. I'm going to dedicate this post to my friend.
Dan actually hasn't worked with us at Convenient for the better part of the last year. After hemming and hawing for several months about wanting to come back, Dan finally confessed that he was actually too sick to work. Dan suffers form a chronic illness that will eventually end his existence on this earthly realm. This was never as obvious as it seems now. Even though Dan no longer works with us he still comes in frequently, as well as, his wife and his adult son. We watched in disbelief as our friend who would normally be in Convenient arguing with us about politics or making some off color remark and leaving us in stitches, came in less and less frequently. When we would see him he started to look ashen and gaunt, his mischievous grin absent from his graying face. The other clerks and I discussed in amongst ourselves, remarking on how "bad" Dan was looking these days.
Dan's wife Jodie, came in last week announcing that Dan was in the hospital recovering from surgery. It wasn't until later that we learned that Dan had Colon Cancer. They had successfully removed it along with six inches of good tissue and the prognosis looked good. Jodie remarked that his color had improved significantly and that he was doing well. We received updates all week this week and when Dan's son Jason came in yesterday I sent a message for Dan with him, "Send your Dad a hug from me Jason..." " I am not hugging the geezer...", he answered with the same mischievous grin of his Dad's. " No Jason, tell him I send him a hug...but, only if he promises not to squeeze my ass!", I replied as Jason burst into laughter, nodding on his way out the door.
Dan has confessed to me that he loves to tease me about every flaw, physical and character-related knowing that it won't hurt my feelings. He's right, it doesn't..I am comfortable in my skin and he can tease me 'til the cows come home, he rarely gets much of a reaction. I hated Dan when I first met him. I though he was a total jerk! I had come in to work the open shift at 5 am one morning and he was working the graveyard shift. I was counting my till and he was standing over me repeatedly shouting, "Hurry up! Aren't you done yet?" I had worked at Convenient for maybe a week at this point and was still trying to get the hang of things. This behavior went on for several minutes before I turned to him glaring and barked, "Shut the hell up!" He stood up and grinned from ear to ear, that's all he wanted! He wanted me to get annoyed enough to tell him off! I must have passed the test though, we've been good friends since. Over the years I've heard the same kind of Dan stories from many of my other co-workers and I've tried to convince them otherwise when I heard about what a jerk he was. The man has a heart of gold, if he likes you he would do anything for you. I remember on many occasions of him doling out money to cash strapped co-workers for kid's presents and what not. I complained to him one evening to him that I wasn't getting enough hours and was having a really hard time making ends meet. He called me up at home and volunteered to give me one of his days and would even baby-sit for me if I needed him to. He did research for fellow co-workers, took my boss's grandsons under his wing and helped all of us out in so many ways.
Jason came in yesterday and announced that he had brought us a present. I looked out the window and yelled for my boss Diane. "Di! Jason brought us a present!" I exclaimed and Di rounded the corner to meet Dan at the door. "Mr. Dan!", she grinned as he came through the door. Dan explained as Jason got them drinks, that they had removed a cantaloupe sized tumor from his colon and showed off his scar. He joked that he only had weeks left to live and we assured him that he was far too ornery to go anywhere anytime soon. I marveled about his color improvement and lack of the distended belly I had been ribbing him about for a couple of years now. His cheeks were sunken in, but he really looked better than I had seen him in a while. Diane and I discussed how he still looked terrible, but was improved. "I can't believe he is out and around already, " Diane marveled. "Well..." I explained, "I guess after battling A.I.D.S for so many years, colon cancer is a walk in the park."