My worst thought came true this past Friday. I had joked about it in that second week. What if you called and the person was...no longer with the company, in the spiritual sense of the word.

"Hi, can I speak with Joe O.?"

Pause........

"Joe O. passed away." The woman's voice was hesitant, and a bit sad.

"Oh dear. I am so sorry to hear that....."

I paused for a second, before I realized that I should expect no reply from the lady on the other end of the line. What was she going to say? Explain the details? He probably wasn't that old. Maybe it was recent. Maybe not.

"Well thank you anyway" was my saving grace. And I got off the phone.

It makes you think doesn't it. We always hear about the physical moving on. "Today, I got up the courage to go to my mom's house and pack up her old clothes." or "I finally managed to throw out the things that no one would ever use or want." What about the day-to-day items? The toothbrush or shaving cream, the leftovers in the fridge. But the online world is a whole other place. What about the Facebook, the LinkedIn? The blog site, the personal email? Are those memories less tangible?

How weird that someone's death could be so public in that way. That, I, a random stranger could learn of this man's death because I wanted to talk to him about a job.

Bizarre, really.