January 5

This is an old picture actually. I was listening to iTunes today and an ABBA song came up which made me think of my ex-coworker, Mary Jo. She used to work with me at New Act Travel and I really liked her a lot. She had the perfect sense of humor.

I kept in touch with her after she left New Act but she died a few years later. It was unexpected. She had fainted at home and hit her head on her coffee table. She was in a coma for a few weeks before she died. It was very upsetting to me.

I remember her funeral. I had been able to refrain from crying for the entire service, which was difficult, especially when they brought the casket down the center aisle of the church. I made it through her family's tearful eulogies and then...as they carried the casket out of the church after the service, they started blaring "Dancing Queen". She used to love ABBA so that made me chuckle. And that little chuckle turned into tears. And then I became the only one still sobbing outside the church.

To this day, that song always transports me back to that moment. In fact, the last time I saw the play "Mamma Mia", I had to leave the auditorium at the end because the cast sings "Dancing Queen". Matt didn't know what was going on and why on earth I was crying. Now he knows. We won't be seeing that play again.

But I love that I always think of Mary Jo when I hear ABBA. It means I will never forget her.

Update (Jan 6): Today, I had iTunes create a Genius playlist for me from the song "Forever Young" by Alphaville. In the past, that song has always given me a playlist full of 80's songs only. Today, however, there are 8 ABBA songs on the list. Weird, huh? It's Mary Jo saying "Hi".