July 20, 2026, Evo Numy
I received an email: one of my clients has passed away. A normal part of working with the elderly. I look at the client's name. My first emotion: a wave of relief. Then comes a flood of guilt and last, pity.
My coworkers and I don't have to deal with this client anymore. I won't dread seeing their phone number calling
This client was so entitled, so demanding, so draining. I won't have to fight them every time I try to help them. I won't have to hear their rude remarks, their condescending tone, their berating language. Tolerating my job will be a little easier now that they're gone… until someone else becomes my new problem child.
Relief shouldn't be my first response to this client's passing. They were old. I don't know what they've been through. They could've had undiagnosed dementia or Alzheimer's. I feel like a bad person for responding the way I am.
…But this client was the type of person who will say they are a good Christian and in the same breath, berate a customer service worker. They babble on about helping others, doing good deeds, being a morally superior person but behind the transparent mask, you see they're a self centered hypocrite, rotten to the core.
It's unfortunate to feel relieved at this client's passing. I wonder how many other people connected to this client feel the same way. What a pity. A waste of a human life.
Did this client ever wonder if anyone would be glad for their passing? Did they have enough self awareness to contemplate how their words and actions affect others? Their precious time on Earth was spent sowing negativity. They only brought joy into the world once they had departed. Now, they will just be a bad memory and will soon be forgotten. What a shame.
Unfortunately, they were just a client and now their spot will be filled in with a new client. The cycle continues. It's a shame our culture has fostered and encouraged many people like this. Many pitiful human lives. Fleeting, forgotten. Soon-to-be corpses piling up into the overburdened eldercare industry.