Trevor woke up that morning feeling every one of his 67 years on Earth. There were good days and bad days, and this one, Trevor decided, was going to be a good day. Trevor looked at the picture of his wife and daughter on his night stand. It was usually the first thing he did every morning. His wife had her own Optometrist practice, while his daughter had just graduated from Cornell, and was working for NASA as a physicist/rocket scientist.
Trevor got out of bed and stretched to loosen up his back. It always stiffened up during sleep, and today was no different. His doctors said it was because he had compressed his spine and no longer had any space between the vertebra. There wasn’t anything he could do about it so he just carried on. He did his morning routine: stretched, shower, shave, brushed his teeth, and got dressed. He dressed casually, since he worked from home. A nice Polo shirt and jeans were the common choice of dress. Trevor made his way downstairs, kissed his wife and said good morning.
Trevor, himself, was twice retired. Once from the US military, where he had served for over 20 years, and once from US Federal service, as part of the Department of Homeland Security. When he left the Federal service, he was ready to stop working altogether but was offered a boatload of money to help a small contracting business get its foot in the door with the DHS. At this point, Trevor found out that no matter where you are in life, a boatload of money is hard to turn down. Still, he was in good health and what else was he going to do? Play golf?
Trevor found that working for a civilian company was very different from his previous government positions. His last 5 years in the Marines had him working out of HQ as an Aviation Asset Logistics manager. He was sent TDY more than half the year, usually two weeks at a time; supposedly going to technical manual reviews, training, and logistic conferences. But most of the time he would assist the CIA in covert operations. His Marine training and technical skills (MS Electrical Engineering) were a rare combination and the CIA had abundant uses for him. Most of his missions centered on captured technology, but at times he was needed to go with the team to where the technology was located. The last mission was the cause of today’s back problems. His fast rope broke when descending down the side of a four-story building, and bam, compressed spine. This of course, led to his retirement from his beloved Marines.
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He used his contacts to get a job at DHS, but as you can imagine, it was not as exciting as being a Marine. Here he really was part of the Aviation Response Logistics’ team. He helped to manage the scheduling of the DHS aircraft fleet modifications. Of course, the CIA still used him occasionally to help with their captured technology, but only on those assets already in the US. While the DHS job may not have been exciting as his Marine job, he still was very diligent in his work, and promoted several times until he ran his own team. He came to enjoy the job and his team’s comradery, until it was time for him to retire once again. He had promised his wife he would retire before he was too old. But that was before the boatload of money was offered. He took the job, telling his wife it would only be for a year, two max. Besides, he would have a lot less responsibilities. He was mostly used by the company to help create proposals for new business, reviewing project SSB (staffing, schedule and budgets), and of course, for his contacts inside the government. As you can imagine, this left a lot of free time for himself. This was not a challenging position, but at least it gave him something to do. On most days, he considered that a positive.
Trevor sitting down at his desk started to work. Five hours later, he did a final review on his email, and then sent it off. He was quite happy with the proposal changes he had just finished. His boss should be even more happy, since Trevor found a way to reduce the base cost by 10%, giving them an excellent chance at winning the contract. He got up from his desk, stretched and moved to his living room. He smiled contently, happy with today’s progress and happy with his life. As he moved toward the couch, “Time for a nap.” he thought.
As Trevor lay down on the couch, getting ready for his nap, he realized that he really was content with his life. He had had some pretty tough time earlier in his life prior to meeting his wife. But had persevered through it. So that now and for the last 25 years, his life had been excellent. It was due to his wife and daughter being in his life. His wife was happy in both her career and in private life. His daughter, of whom he was extremely proud, had a challenging and exciting career ahead of her and would do wonderful things. With the two of them in his life, he was happy and content. He closed his eyes and sighed happily, just before falling asleep.
Ten minutes into his nap, Trevor died.
