stunned

On Tuesday evening I nodded goodbye to Mad Secretary as she stomped off into the icy cold night, wrapped up warm from her sensible boots to a very dashing hat.

Yesterday JJ stopped by my office to say that Mad Secretary hadn't come in and wasn't picking up either of her phones.  We rang the agency (Mad Secretary is a temp) who hadn't heard from her and they tried ringing her ICE number to no avail.  JJ and I fretted for the rest of the day, with JJ intermittently trying Mad Secretary's phones.  We ran through possible scenarios: Mad Secretary went to visit her daughter in one of the Home Counties and got snowed in (best case), she slipped and fell on the ice on the way to work and was taken to her local A&E (JJ's worst case), she fell in the bath and broke her hip (my worst case - she is 71).

This morning the department PA came to my office and told me about the scenario we hadn't imagined.  That Mad Secretary had had a massive heart attack sometime either Tuesday night or Wednesday and had died instantly.  I know it's true.  We all know that it is true.  It's just impossible to believe.