Lost a friend

I worked with Dale Duncan for sixteen years. When I started at Parker, he was an auxiliary. His job was to know every job in the place and be able to fill in when and where needed. Dale and I were together on second shift, and when I moved to the mill department, He would sometimes assist, especially when we had over time which was often.
I got caught in the mill one night. We'd stayed over to finish a run. I was feeding remill into the machine, and part of the rubber snagged the knee safety, then pulled tight on my hand, spinning it into the rollers. That night, dale was running a panner on the far side of the plant. When the siren sounded, something sparked in him, and while most of the other people stood and looked on, he sprinted across the building, immediately applied pressure to slow the blood squirting from my destroyed fingers, then got me down on the floor and monitored me for signs of shock.
I was in serious pain, but Dale kept with me, talking to me and distracting me from the grievous damage to my hand. When medics arrived, he continued to assist, and was one of the hands that lifted the gurney into the ambulance.
I learned later, that after the doors closed, one of the other workers commented, "Well, that's the last we'll see of him."
Dale would have nothing of that, and told the guy flat out that I would be back, and three months later, I was. When I heard the story, I went and asked him why he was so confident. He said it was simple, I never got mad, I didn't cuss and scream about my injuries, I kept a sense of humor through the whole incident, and he sensed determination in me.
After returning to work, I did a stint as a material handler, then advanced to running extrusion equipment. about that time, they had an opening for foreman, and Dale was one of many in the running. As the field narrowed, he stayed in the pack, and when the position was announced, it went to Dale.
Dale was a great foreman. He would listen to people, and after I became a maintenance man, he and I worked closely on many projects suggested by the employees which improved product and operations, and made life easier for every one.
Dale was also homophobic, not that that is a bad thing, but in his position, it made it easy and fun to mess with him. The first time I saw him having a bad night, I patted him on the shoulder, and he nearly went through the roof. Yes, I capitalized on that. One night though, he was showing signs of a very bad time, so I sat down and asked what was wrong. It turned out his young daughter had been playing in the yard a few days prior, and had encountered a rabid skunk. She wasn't bitten, but still had to endure the rounds of shots which are miserable. Dale was struggling and feeling like he'd failed her. When I patted his shoulder that night, He looked me in the eye and told me that for once, the kindness was appreciated. He said he felt like I cared, and I did.
Dale always enjoyed a good joke, and I had a ton of em. He in turn had many stories about life and living in Kansas. Dale enjoyed hunting, fishing and the great outdoors. He always seemed to take life in stride.
Dale passed in his sleep Thursday night or Friday morning. No cause of death reported yet, I would speculate a heart attack. He was just shy of his 58th Birthday.