RIP Xavier

We seem to be having a string of bad luck lately at Kmart - really bad luck.

A few weeks ago on Monday, Nando's mom died of Pancreatic Cancer.

Just before that, my friend Nick cut off the tip of his finger at work, and thankfully they were able to sow it back on.

And heck, even though Judy 98 can be mean sometimes (okay, a lot), I felt bad for her on Wednesday when her husband (I think, at least someone close to her) went into diabetic shock and she had to call the paramedics.

But yesterday may just be the saddest point in all of our lives.

I'm sure that I've talked about Latonya on here before. She's the manager of the supervisors at Kmart and without her the whole store would go under. After school, her two big kids always walk to Kmart and wait for her to get off so they can all walk home together. We've all gotten to know and love those sweet little boys, some of us even taking our breaks to go spend time with them and talk about Spiderman :)

Yesterday morning, however, all of our lives were radically changed forever.

Latonya called in sick so that she could take Xavier to the hospital because he wasn't feeling well at all. Between that and when they reached the hospital, Xavier's asthma attack caused his bronchial tubes to close up, forcing him to go through cyanosis and he stopped breathing all together. Despite all the doctors did, they were unable to revive him.

As devastated as we all are, it's hard to imagine our Mama Latonya going through all of this. Just last week she was so concerned about Nando and how he was handling his mom's death, so worried that he would be okay after losing someone so close to him. I will not pretend to know what she is going through right now, but I'm sure it's worse than death itself.

If any of you know Latonya, there is a condolences card set up at Kmart for people to sign, along with sign-up sheets with things to help out their family. I think the biggest thing right now is helping out with meals and snacks for her remaining three kids.

She's done so much for all of us, both at work and in our personal lives. I just hope that we are all able to show our love and support for her, and that will help her cope with this terrible tragedy.

It's so hard to think that I won't be able to see his cute little shining face again, that I won't get to see more of his drawings or his coat and backpack left at the service desk.

RIP Xavier