Goodbye Bradman.

Tracy's post was hard to read. I haven't been at work since August, so I'm not sure how I am going to deal with this. I don't have to be at the store, half expecting him to come around a corner. I don't have to worry about picking up the phone to page him, only to have to put it down because I can't page him anymore. The sad part for me is that I'm not there to talk about him with everyone, as they trade Brad stories, and laugh and cry at the same time as they all realize that he is really gone. So here are a few of my memories.

I started working at Home Depot 9 years ago, at the South Common store. As head cashiers, we looked after the lot attendants. The most memorable one ever, has to be Brad. It was Brad that coined the term "Cart Transfer Technician". His lot escapades were infamous - from 'loaded diaper' counts (people were forever leaving Huggies for him to pick up), to cart surfing, to the name of the day on his apron. Lot attendants go through a lot of aprons. Brad was never afraid of being different. He started out with 'Brad' on his apron. This progressed to Bradman, The Bradster, Bradorama, and so on. Irene, our manager finally said "Please, can't you be just Brad?" You guessed it, his next apron read...

Just Brad

(I believe it was "The Bradster" that received a customer comment card.)

I remember Brad as part of our Over 6'4" club - we had an unusually large number of really tall men at that store. He was the skinniest though, and would regularly eat his huge lunch at his coffee break, and go through several double burgers from Harvey's at his lunch break. Some days it was astounding how much food he could put away.

I also remember his crazy Halloween escapades, and his tales of how he found most of his costumes at "Lou's". This just happened to be in his dad's closet. Apparently Lou had a lot of polyester left over from the 70's...

The sticker car...Brad's vehicle of choice at the time was a little beater, that was entirely held together by stickers of all shapes and sizes.

I moved on to the Strathcona store, and didn't see Brad again until I moved again to the Sherwood Park store. Our little Brad had grown up, and was now a manager. It was really neat seeing him grow up from a skinny, silly lot attendant, to a less skinny, (still silly) good manager. (He knew when to be serious, but the silly Brad was the best.)

He kept us laughing and smiling, even when we had to deal with really stupid customer situations. Our office was full of laughter, good natured ribbing and tons of inside jokes. We had cake days and Slurpee days, and Swiss Chalet days. I love the day that we 'decorated' the windows of his truck and managed to get someone else blamed for it. (Thanks Jerrett!)

I remember how proud he was when he became an uncle. He had a picture of his niece on his cell phone, and would show it to anyone who wanted to see it.

Brad had a huge family at Home Depot. He was a son to some, brother to most, and a friend to all. We are all richer for having known such a great guy. We will miss you so much Brad.