Christmas goodbyes to a friend

Carolyn called me yesterday afternoon to tell me that one of my friends at another of our campuses had been killed in a car accident that morning. He was driving alone and apparently lost control of his car going around a curve. Peter and I had worked together on faculty senate, and Carolyn had asked me when he was hired to mentor him, which at the time I thought was pretty sad since I’d only been on campus two years myself then. We were often at meetings together, and spent a lot of time together through senate especially—I’m chairing this year, and he was our vice-chair. I guess I didn’t realize how many breakfasts and lunches you can eat with somebody at senate meetings.

Still, we weren’t terribly close, and the only time we’ve ever socialized outside school was this past summer when I had a party for Fran and Todd and myself after we were all three tenured and promoted. Pete drove all the way over from Union and brought us a bottle of champagne. He stayed for dinner and cake, but then left just as we were opening his champagne. He was like that—we worked together often, but he never talked about his family or his personal life. Carolyn called me because we were close—surely he had closer friends than me. I will miss him, though. Pete was up for promotion this year, and I served as a local committee member for his case. I was really looking forward to bringing him a bottle of champagne for his celebration when his promotion was announced next year.

I called Todd and a couple of other people who also knew Pete, but I didn’t want to call Fran since I knew she was celebrating Christmas on Sunday. I needed to tell somebody, I guess. It was an odd afternoon, calling those few folks who also knew Pete and decorating the Christmas tree. I don’t know if Peter had a tree or not, or whether he was planning to travel for the holidays, or even if he celebrated Christmas—I saw him a week ago today at another meeting, but he was in a hurry afterwards and I didn’t have a chance to tell him goodbye and ask about his holiday plans. Still, I put my ornaments on the tree in his honor and was thankful that I’m here today to do that with my family.