Wednesday marked the third anniversary of the worst phone call I’ve ever received.  It was around 6:00am Saturday May 23rd when we received the call from Nancy Griffin from Health Sciences North asking if my wife Janice and I could go to her home to pick up her mom and bring her to the hospital and look after Zoe. She said Rich is in a coma and the doctors don’t think he’s going to make it.  I don’t think it really hit me because I was in shock and wondering how in the world Nancy was even able to talk.

A short time later I was driving Nancy’s mom to the hospital where I first saw Rich …hooked up to a bunch of machines doing the breathing for him and I realized just how serious it was. The rest of the day and the next week or so were a blur with any hopes of a recovery vanishing quickly then doing the morning show on Monday with Mike Allard (I could not have done it without you) and then Rich’s organ donations and finally funeral.

Griff and I started working together on April 24th, 2001 which was a Tuesday.  Early on we talked about our 30-year retirement plan.  We would work until April 24, 2031 which is a Thursday then both of us would take Friday off and not show up for work Monday to see if anybody noticed.  But that plan was crushed three years ago.

Yesterday I sent Nancy a quick post on her Facebook page and I’d like to share that and some of the good times we had together on and off the air.

Hey Nancy Griffin ….Three years has gone by in a blink of an eye but the pain of Rich’s loss remains so fresh for so many including you and Zoe. Every morning I see Griff’s face at work on his plaque beside the alarm keypad and I’m reminded how quickly the 14+ years we spent together on air flew by. Over that period of time, we had a ton of amazing experiences working with numerous charities and our yearly trips south to Sandals Resorts. So I’m going to post some of those memories here as a way to honour the Griff-Meister.
Memories keep our Loved Ones Alive.

Filed under: Griff, memories, Rich Giffin