Goodbye, My Friend
Well, it happened again. I've lost another sister who was in uniform and who died much too young. April was a young green Officer when I first met her. Even then she had medical problems, but they never stopped her for long. I've seen her come into work hurting so badly that sometimes she would come to my Unit and cry. She always tried so hard. I never saw her turn a job down.
She was a CO and I was a Sgt. But she was my friend and stayed that way, and even now she is still my friend. She was young enough to be my daughter, but we seemed to get along just fine. She always tried to be what a female Correctional Officer should be—proud of the job she was doing and always professional. Her husband must have loved her very much because in all those years I never heard her say a word about him getting tired of her being sick. Her medical problems almost crippled her, but she kept going until it got so bad she couldn't go any more.
I lost contact with her when I went north for a promotion, but I would still ask mutual friends how she was doing. I was told she was going to Nursing School to become an RN.
She was only 41 years old. She completed nursing school as an RN, and had even been hired at a hospital when her time ran out. May I see you in Heaven, my friend April, where we can rejoice that there is no pain and that there are no cellblocks there.
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