The Last Hours

November 30, 2015

5:30 am

Coffee greets me as I walk into the kitchen. A good way to start any day, even a day such as this, my last day of work at Mitsubishi. No lunch to pack this time, as I don't anticipate being in the plant past about 10:30. I will need to bring my own pen to use though, we have been told by the company. Seems a little cheap and petty, but I guess I'll play by their rules...for one last time.

6:30 am

This is it. The turnstile swinging around, locking noisily behind me. We aren't sure just exactly what will happen today, we just know we will not be spinning the turnstiles tomorrow morning, as we each did some 6,000 times in the past. Rumor has it that we will be told to sit in our respective break areas until called in to the front lobby to sign our acceptance of termination. (My choice of words, not theirs. I just thought it better signified the proper weight of the occasion.)

It's a damp dreary morning, perhaps befitting the somber occasion. I slide my badge through the time clock for the last time, and sit...and sit...and sit. Apparently we are expected to do nothing until our appointed time to sign our papers. Three and a half hours of reminiscing with my soon-to-be-former co workers before our 10:00 appointment with fate. A lot of co-miserating, wondering the unknown of our futures, and silence. Waiting.

I cross the aisles that just last week would have had me dodging fork trucks. Now just from habit, I stop and look both ways. And see nothing. The dull roar of activity is no more, replaced by a quiet hum of idled industrial controls. The equipment appears ready for the next vehicle, but nobody has informed them of the end. It's time to pull the plug.

Unexpected. Shaking hands with people I've seen on a near-daily basis, but hardly know more than by name. And...tearing up. People I barely know, but will likely never see again, and it's hard to say goodbye.

And then the people I know well. This is harder. Harder than I thought it would be. I've heard the tales of their lives over the years, their kids growing up, going to school, getting married, having their grandkids. Life moments, big and small. I know some of their lives nearly as well as I know my own, and I may never see most of them again. Goodbye...possibly forever. It was good working with you all, best wishes in your future endeavors (pun intended).

9:00 am

And on this final day here, the company is surprisingly (and uncharacteristically) efficient. Just before 9:00, a full hour ahead of schedule, our superintendent comes to our area and tells us it’s our turn. We make the long trek to the front office, not talking much, but still with a few of the now-unappreciated hijinks along the way. We get in our proper lines to pick up our packets with papers to sign, and then are quickly herded into a small conference room. A couple of lawyer types explain what we are signing, and that we have the right to not sign, and we parade past the front desk, handing in our signed papers, keeping a copy for ourselves, and we’re done.

9:18 am

I walk out the glass doors that I’d passed through only once before, back when I was interviewing for the job almost 27 years ago. A great deal had happened in the interim, but that is all behind me now as the doors swing shut, closing forever on this chapter of my life. I make the long walk out to my car in the far parking lot in the cold November rain, somewhat thankful for the raindrops mingling with, and hiding the drops falling from my eyes. I get into my car, open the one beer I had left there for this occasion, and head for home. Inside the car there was no rain to disguise my crying.