A dear friend has passed.....

When you ride the Metro, you become friends with the other riders and you form your own little community. When something happens to one member of the community, it affects all of us. Well, our community of #63 riders has lost a great friend to cancer. We all knew Jan had a cancer spot on her lung but they removed it, she had some Chemo & Radiation and was fine. We worried about her husband Karl and his bad heart but things were starting to look a bit better for her. Then one day she just couldn't find a comfortable position to sit in. Then as time went on it just got worse. She described it as sitting on a small rock. Well, it turns out it was a cancer cluster. Chemo began again with some new procedures and before you knew it, her immune system was so weak she had to miss a week of work for fear one of them had a cold or something. Then she came back and said she was going to work for a while, would be out two months, come back after the first of the year for 2 weeks then just retire. We sent cards and letters telling her how much we missed her and hoped she was doing well. We decided to take her to dinner or lunch - her choice - just let us know. No response. Then we thought maybe she wouldn't be comfortable in public so we'd all make dishes and meet at my house one night. So we sent her a note and let her know. No response. Even "Vilhelm" our favorite driver was trying to track down an old friend who'd driven our run a few years before so she could see him. Then, yesterday on the way home, Cheri gave me the news. Jan had died. Not only did we feel bad that she had died but she died on October 12th and the service was October 14th, the weekend of our snow storm so no one knew and none of us were there. We'd planned that, when the time came and she passed, we'd each put a bus token in her hand so she always had the correct fare. She always preferred to sit in the senior citizen seats facing in to the bus instead of facing forward. Well Miss Jan, now you've got the softest seat in the house with the best view. Don't forget about us, we won't forget about you. Love, your Family of the #63