A Yearlong Friendship And A Hard Goodbye

Your heart can feel the loss before your phone ever rings. I’m sharing a short, heavy bonus episode about death, grief, and the day I learned my friend and coworker Adeline Chapman had passed away. We met on the job and became fast friends in a way that surprised me, because I’m not the type to run with a crowd. But with her, the bond was real, simple, and steady.

I talk about the little things that became big things: rides home after second shift so she wouldn’t have to catch the bus, dinners together, and the way we kept showing up for each other even after she got sick and couldn’t work anymore. When cancer entered the picture, I didn’t even know at first and that truth hit hard. It also opened up a deeper conversation about how people sometimes hide painful news from the ones they love most, and what it means to stay close when life gets scary.

From there, I get honest about family hurt and the pattern I can’t stand: families who only come together when someone is dying or already gone. None of us knows when life will change, so I’m asking the question out loud: why not love now, support now, fix what can be fixed now? If you’ve been dealing with loss, friendship after illness, family division, or searching for spiritual comfort, this one is for you. Listen, share it with someone who needs a nudge to reach out, and please subscribe and leave a review if this message lands with you.

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Transcript

A Heavy Heart And Death

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Hey there, Regina Story. Welcome back to another bonus episode of Regina Story Audio Series Presents. Um I'm not gonna hold you very long. I just wanna talk briefly about death, which is not a good topic to talk about, but sometimes it's something that we all need to talk about. And we speak about a friend that um a colleague of mine that passed away on the 19th. Her name was Adeline Chapman. And we met on the job. We met and we became fast friends, and I don't normally do that with anyone. I don't. Anybody that knows me know that I just I say to myself, I'm the kind of person that don't like to be in the crowd. I uh I'm a I'm a to yourself kind of a person, I really am. But with Adeline, and she was the same way, that's

Meeting Adeline And Bonding Fast

SPEAKER_01 1:11

the weird part. People thought she was mean, and but I didn't think she was mean, I just thought she was a person that was straight to the point. But we became fast friends. I would go what most people would say out of my way to take her home at night. When I got off from work, when I worked the second shift, I would definitely go out of my way because I just had to hit the interstate and be home. But I would go out of my way and take her home to keep her from having to uh catch the bus, you know, and would chat and talk and you know things like that, but um roughly around um oh my god, I think it was the end of last summer, she um kept getting sick, her stomach was hurting her very badly. And um, long story short, you know, she finally got tested and they said that it was cancer. Now, of course, she didn't tell me, she told everybody but me. I didn't even know it. Even when we would talk a lot of times, I still didn't know that she had cancer. And that's how it is sometimes a friend or a family member who's very close to you don't want you to know things because they're very close to you, and my sister Laura was very much like that. As a matter of fact, I had adopted Adeline as my sister Laura type, you know. I was so glad to have another sisterly figure in my life, so but we became fast friends and just hit it off very well, you know. Anything that I could do for her, I did it, and vice versa, you know. We um sit and have dinner together,

Cancer News And Staying Close

SPEAKER_01 3:10

and like I said, I don't do that with people, especially people on the job. I don't do it. It's not like I'm better than anybody, but I just don't do that. But with her I did that. When she got cancer and could not come work to work anymore and couldn't work anymore, I would still go by her house to see her before I go to work, or go by to see her the next morning when I got off from work. So we we stayed friends. I mean we didn't wouldn't stop, it just got stronger. And um oh my god, it's so hard. It's breaking my heart right now. But um you know the weird thing about death is for me anyway, I uh sometimes I'll know things is wrong. Last week I was crying, crying, crying, crying. I'm like, god, come on now, what's going on? Because anytime the Lord had me crying like that, something is definitely wrong. And so I mean literally crying my eyes out and I say, God, come on, what is it? And um now I know why, you know. I know why now, and I and I've been trying to collar, collar, collar for the last week because like I said, we stay in touch with each other almost every day. I talk sometimes two or three times a day. And I don't do that with people, just write with people, so you know we had to have hit it off with each other. But I'm here to say God put that lady in my life for that short time for a year's year's time, a year's time, so I can tell her about the Lord and bring some happiness to her life and bring happiness to my own life because I lost my sister Laura. So I'm just here to say that when it got the news this morning that she had passed away, because I've been trying to call her like crazy, like I haven't talked to my friend. What is up? I haven't talked to her, I need to talk to her.

SPEAKER_00 5:43

And surely enough, you know, she had passed away.

The Weight Of Grief And Intuition

SPEAKER_01 5:55

You know what I wish with my family, my own family? I wish that they didn't wait to someone get sick or are about to die or die to come together. I have that kind of family that they don't come together, they don't get together until someone is is dead or about to die or is sick, they don't get together, and I wish that they would stop that. I wish with all of my heart that they would stop that. I have a sister who hurt me so bad back in February. She hurt my feelings. She wounded me and she knew it. But we we never we never got it right because I was so hurt by the things that she said to me. I was hurt by the things she said, hurtful things that I was trying to do something good for her, and I

Why Families Wait To Unite

SPEAKER_01 7:05

did something good for her, and it seemed like she just didn't appreciate it. And that hurt me. Because I do put myself out sometimes to do things for people. I do a little bit more than I probably should, but if the Lord tell me to do something, I have to do it if the Lord tells me. And we finally didn't make up last week, but it was because of my brother. She had told my brother, well, Gina is mad with me, I don't know what's going on. I just wish these are my older sisters. I wish that they would try to come together. Because we we all we can't know where death is. None of us. You can go to the doctor and the doctor can say, No, you got cancer. You can be driving home from work and be in an accident. Any anything can happen, anything. And I'm not trying to put bad vibes out on anyone, but I'm just saying, why can't we love roses now, love now, instead of waiting till someone pass away or die. Why? That's why you see me supporting. I support my nieces and nephews and um friends, I support people. I support them. People cannot say one thing they can't say about me is that I don't support you. I support my family as well, in one way or the other. And so I just wish my greatest wish is that my own personal family would come together. Is all these little groups, this group here, that group there, a section here, a section there. Everybody got their own groups, their own little areas, their own little, you know, little little teams, I should call it. And when someone died, then everybody cuddled together, the phone ring off the phone is ringing off the hook. Such and such died, this one died, oh it just wouldn't die, oh I'm so sorry, oh and that bund is there but for a very short time. I I I wish my family could come together. I mean the whole family. I know the whole tree family can't come together, you know, like uh my great-great-grandmother or my uncle from tin from my father's side and all that. I know that can happen. But for the immediate family Why do we have to wait till someone die?

SPEAKER_00 10:10

Why?

SPEAKER_01 10:16

I thank God for putting Adeline in my life for roughly a year or a little bit better. I thank God for putting her in my life. We were a blessing to one another, you know. There were times I was extremely tired after we're having worked. I was so tired working overnight at the hospital. I was so tired. But she had called me and she said, you know, she just as after she was, you know, couldn't work anymore. She said, What are you doing? She called me, she said, What are you doing? Here it is like like nine o'clock and haven't even gone to bed yet, you need to go to bed. And she said, What are you doing? Um I said, Well, I I just got home and I said, Well, what's up? You know, we talked like that, what's up? She said, I don't know, I just want to know if you want to get together later and we just have sit out, talk, you know, shoot debris or whatever. I say, Oh sure, yeah. She said, We'll just get a couple hours of sleep and if you feel like it, and and sure enough, a lot of times I would, believe it or not, I would go right then. I should have been sleeping, but I would go then and would just sit and talk. She just a lot of times just wanted someone to talk to. Because a lot of times when people no longer work at a job, this shows you a true friend. When someone don't work at a job anymore, a lot of times people forget you. They do, they forget you. You know, and a lot of times people would tell me on mini jobs, this happened before when I was at another place. People would tell me, they say, you know what, you are the only one out of all those people that say that they're my friend, they're my this, they're my that, you are the absolute only one, Regina, who remember who remembers me, who who continue to stay in contact with me. And that is so important to do. You know, when people are we don't know what people are going through, number one. We don't know. So I'm

Reconciling Hurt With A Sister

SPEAKER_01 12:45

so glad that God put Adeline in my life. It was for a short time, it was for a year. But we made a bond that I'll have to say goes beyond the goes beyond the grave. That bond goes beyond the grave. And I'm just thankful to God. I'm sorry guys, the cat is on my bed just acting crazy. But I'm glad God put her in my life and put us in one another's life. I had a chance to tell her about the Lord and you know, we had a chance to talk about the Lord. We did. We just talk about the good times and have a good time. We talked about the Lord too. I'm definitely gonna miss her. I'm going to miss her. You know how strange it is. Uh my sister Laura's memorial is coming up. In August. Well, no, in July, sorry.

SPEAKER_00 13:55

Alright, alright. Her memorial is coming up. Oh my god, I'm just this is really taking me, guys, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_01 14:10

I'm just praying for her family, her kids, her girls, her sons, her sisters.

SPEAKER_00 14:19

I'm praying for her family. I hope and pray that.

SPEAKER_01 14:27

God gives them strength that God strengthens them. I I hope that's my prayer for her family, for her girls and for her family, you know, her grandkids.

SPEAKER_00 14:43

And I just want to say I just want to say, you know, just love.

SPEAKER_01 14:50

Love.

SPEAKER_00 14:53

It's not all about you all the time, it's not all about me all the time. Love I'm going to call heart girls um try to

Showing Up When Work Friends Fade

SPEAKER_00 15:10

do something, you know. My heart is broken by this wrong. My heart is broken. I know that God. I know dog things. I know dogs. I'm gonna definitely miss her.

SPEAKER_01 15:44

You know, I I'm not close to a lot of people, I'm really not. I'm not close to my sisters, I'm not, I'm just gonna be honest with you.

SPEAKER_00 15:57

I'm closer to my brothers. And I was pretty close to Adeline.

SPEAKER_01 16:05

I was pretty close to her. Anybody on the job could tell you that.

SPEAKER_00 16:10

A lot of times when I come in to work, people will say, Um, how is how's Adeline, you know?

SPEAKER_01 16:18

Oh god We don't know where death is. We don't know when that last moment of life, when the breath, the last breath of our body is gone, when we breathe our last breath.

SPEAKER_00 16:36

We don't know. We don't know. We don't know. I just want to say that.

SPEAKER_01 16:50

I just my heart felt super heavy. Now I know why. You know, I didn't know, but now I know. So now I'm just gonna be praying for her daughters and for her family and her sons, and that God gives me strength. I'm sorry, I wasn't intending to bring you this type of a podcast. But because my heart was a bit heavy, I had to express myself somehow, you know. So thank you for listening.

SPEAKER_00 17:29

If you got someone out there, a loved one, a family member, a friend. Love them. Love them. Love them. Again, contact me at sworn Regina at gmail dot com And you can visit my official website Regina Sworn

Prayer Love Now And Contact

SPEAKER_00 18:16

dot com. Thanks for listening.