EULOGY WITHOUT APOLOGY

So I received an email this morning advising me of the passing of an ex-coworker.  I'm not really sure why this person felt compelled to let me know.  He knows there was absolutely NO love lost between me and this person.  She was not nice to me.  In the nearly 17 years we worked together, she was unable to utter an honestly pleasant word to me. 

She accused me of doing something (I've never known what) some 15 years prior to my leaving the company that negatively affected her.  And so she held some sort of grudge for nearly two decades.  She said I knew what it was and that she had it in writing.  I never saw what she was referring to, she was never willing or able to produce the "evidence" of my horrific action.  Yet she was known to growl, "SHE KNOWS WHAT SHE DID!  SHE KNOOOOOOWS!!"  These utterances from her caused some investigations within our organization.  I was questioned at work and even asked if I'd had any "minglings" with her husband.  Really?  I was told that the only reason a woman would hate another woman so much for so long is because they must have screwed around with the others hubby.  I was insulted and angered over this.  But got over it.  Nothing ever happened between her husband and me (except I always felt kind of sorry for him being married to her). 

She was a sue-happy person...sued her brother, her next-door neighbors, Wal-mart, her in-laws, and attempted to sue the company we worked for.  She thought her neighbors were spying on her.  She forced her husband to remove, completely, the patio bar in the new house they bought because there would be NO gathering place for the consumption of alcohol in her home.  During one of the many "investigative meetings" at work she threatened to hurt me.  She was fired for that threat but regained her job after three days off without pay (thank you Teamsters).  She told our employer I didn't like her because she was fat, gray-haired, and Mexican.  She wasn't fat.  She colored her hair red.  Yes, she was Mexican.  So are many people I am friends with and so were many of my coworkers at that time. 

I didn't like her because she was a bitch.

Bottom line - she was insecure.  Who knows why.  She had a loving husband and adoring son (whom she smothered the hell out of...poor kid).  She had a good job and lived in what I heard was a very nice home. 

She's gone now.  I'm not sad.  I left that company several years ago and have had no contact with her since.  When I found out she was ill, all I could think was that she brought it on herself.  Karma's also a bitch.