Eulogy
Worker Killed After Falling From Roof On East Side
September 28, 2006 : The employee of a scaffolding company died Thursday after officials say he lost his balance and fell 12 stories from the roof of 800 Second Avenue at 42nd Street at around 9 a.m.
The Department of Buildings says 21-year-old Jose Luis Melendez Gutierez of the Bronx just lost his balance on the roof and fell. The man's body landed on a lower rooftop, about two stories above the sidewalk. A fire chief on the scene says workers were in the process of either setting up or taking down the scaffolding at the time of the accident.
Melendez Gutierez was wearing a safety harness at the time, but it did not appear to be connected to anything. The Department of Buildings issued a stop work order for the site, but no violations will be handed out.
www.NY1.com
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Someone died today.
No, I do not know him. I do not even know his name as Iam writing this. I only got to contemplating about his fate this afternoonas I was walking to lunch and passed by the corner of 42nd Street and 2ndAvenue.
"This is the spot where he died," my other friends told me. There was a huge pool of blood that morning and they had viewed this from the 24th floor window of our offices just across from the corner.
We only know that the guy was 21 years old. Did he wake up this morning and go throughthe usual routine he goes through everyday? He might have skipped breakfast, if he takes one, because he was running late. He hopped on the subway and bitched about the crowd or the delays in the train schedule. Did he also have a scowl on his face when he saw an officemate that he couldn't stand? Something that he must have been doing everyday at the sight of that person as I am apt to do whenever I see/hear someone I work with I can't stand.
Or maybe he woke up with grand thoughts and plans about his weekend, just happy that he had made it to Thursday and that he is just one more day away from some R&R. Did he have plans to propose to a girlfriend? Move to a new apartment? Reconcile with a neighbor? If he was single would this weekend he had hoped they'd finally be able to break the ice with someone he had eternally been flirting with? If he had a family, how would his young children live the first weekend that dad will not be around? This weekend, he won't be eating with his family or drinking with his buddies. Maybe he is a Mets or a Yankee fan - he wouldn't even know ifthere would be a subway series in October.
I have no idea how he looked like. I have no idea how he lived his life. At his funeral I am sure people will talk about the good things about him. His family and friends would probably utter something like, "he was a selfless goodman." I wonder however how his neighbors thought about him.
What would his enemies say about him? Isn't that the true measure of a person anyway?
So this morning a 21 year old guy left his house and went to work. And at 9AM, even before some of us made it to our desks, he fell from the scaffolding of the building at the corner of 42nd Street and 2nd Avenue. He fell 10 stories, one news website said. He fell 12 stories, another one said. It doesn't matter now really. He fell. He is now dead.
All that he had worked for all his life had ended at some city street corner. Some people stopped to see what the fuss was about, then rushed back to their lives, only momentarily thinking - that was one painful way to go.
Such is life.
September 28, 2006 : The employee of a scaffolding company died Thursday after officials say he lost his balance and fell 12 stories from the roof of 800 Second Avenue at 42nd Street at around 9 a.m.
The Department of Buildings says 21-year-old Jose Luis Melendez Gutierez of the Bronx just lost his balance on the roof and fell. The man's body landed on a lower rooftop, about two stories above the sidewalk. A fire chief on the scene says workers were in the process of either setting up or taking down the scaffolding at the time of the accident.
Melendez Gutierez was wearing a safety harness at the time, but it did not appear to be connected to anything. The Department of Buildings issued a stop work order for the site, but no violations will be handed out.
www.NY1.com
**************************
Someone died today.
No, I do not know him. I do not even know his name as Iam writing this. I only got to contemplating about his fate this afternoonas I was walking to lunch and passed by the corner of 42nd Street and 2ndAvenue.
"This is the spot where he died," my other friends told me. There was a huge pool of blood that morning and they had viewed this from the 24th floor window of our offices just across from the corner.
We only know that the guy was 21 years old. Did he wake up this morning and go throughthe usual routine he goes through everyday? He might have skipped breakfast, if he takes one, because he was running late. He hopped on the subway and bitched about the crowd or the delays in the train schedule. Did he also have a scowl on his face when he saw an officemate that he couldn't stand? Something that he must have been doing everyday at the sight of that person as I am apt to do whenever I see/hear someone I work with I can't stand.
Or maybe he woke up with grand thoughts and plans about his weekend, just happy that he had made it to Thursday and that he is just one more day away from some R&R. Did he have plans to propose to a girlfriend? Move to a new apartment? Reconcile with a neighbor? If he was single would this weekend he had hoped they'd finally be able to break the ice with someone he had eternally been flirting with? If he had a family, how would his young children live the first weekend that dad will not be around? This weekend, he won't be eating with his family or drinking with his buddies. Maybe he is a Mets or a Yankee fan - he wouldn't even know ifthere would be a subway series in October.
I have no idea how he looked like. I have no idea how he lived his life. At his funeral I am sure people will talk about the good things about him. His family and friends would probably utter something like, "he was a selfless goodman." I wonder however how his neighbors thought about him.
What would his enemies say about him? Isn't that the true measure of a person anyway?
So this morning a 21 year old guy left his house and went to work. And at 9AM, even before some of us made it to our desks, he fell from the scaffolding of the building at the corner of 42nd Street and 2nd Avenue. He fell 10 stories, one news website said. He fell 12 stories, another one said. It doesn't matter now really. He fell. He is now dead.
All that he had worked for all his life had ended at some city street corner. Some people stopped to see what the fuss was about, then rushed back to their lives, only momentarily thinking - that was one painful way to go.
Such is life.