Bulldozer00's Blog

Ray Leggiero was a great friend and work colleague of mine. Ray would stop by my cube every other day early in the morning to talk, joke, and commiserate for a few minutes about a variety of subjects. Ray was one of only two regular commenters on this ridiculous blog. Ray often challenged my views and beliefs and made me think twice about what the hell I was saying. Ray was a Yankee fan and I’m a Red Sox fan. Ray was a Republican and I am a pseudo-Democrat. Ray was passionate about all aspects of software development and so am I.

After not hearing from, or seeing the ever-smiling Ray, trucking around the office for a week, I walked over to his cube to find out why. His cubie mate told me that Ray was sick and wouldn’t be back for awhile, so I called his house. His wife, Pat, came right out and shocked me with “Ray has cancer“. She said that he was too tired and sick to come to the phone.

A week later, I learned that Ray was gravely ill and in the intensive care unit of a local hospital. The same day we heard this stunning news, a couple of other work friends and I went to the hospital to see Ray during lunch break. We were floored and deeply disheartened when we saw the state he was in. We were so rattled and shaken by what we had seen, that instead of going back to work, we went to a bar and guzzled a few beers to calm our nerves. Ray died the next morning.

The suddenness of it all was incredibly jolting and earth shattering to many people, especially Pat and his three young boys: Anthony, Matthew, and Brandon. In the span of only one month, gentle Ray went from being a vibrant, positive, conscientious, helpful person to a very sick individual engulfed by cancer. I, and scores of other people, will deeply miss Ray’s luminescent presence in our lives.

So long my dear, dear friend.