Have you ever had to fire someone?

Have you ever had to fire someone? I mean, have you ever been forced to tell a colleague that from that day he or she will be able to stay home because it is no longer sustainable? And have you ever put yourself in that colleague’s shoes, slipped into his or her life? Have you ever identified yourself with a bedridden mother, or without a partner and a child to take care of, or with a wife without a job and multiple children to support, or with a mortgage just signed, or with a newborn child, or a wish just wished for?

I don’t know, if it’s ever happened to you. But it’s happened to me, fourteen times, all at once. And it was terrible. Kept me awake, and kept me from living.

It’s a stormy time, I said a few weeks ago, and I’m facing challenges that I never imagined I would have to face.

Our company has no more employees except me, who is dealing with the last paperwork before closing down for good, at the latest by the end of the month. Then there will be the future, which, as every future, I imagine bright; this present, damn it, how dark it is.