There was little warning. He always had problems at UPS with the Center Manager. Other UPS drivers have verified this. Jim never hesitated to file grievances and was outspoken and the supervisors did not like this. He was fired on Friday November 14 and didn't say anything. He had had a cold and was taking some cold medicine. We spent the whole weekend together, as normal just doing things together. Friday night after work, I took a bath and he sat in and talked to me. Saturday, we watched Catch 22, went to Krogers to shop for Managers Specials and the only thing on Saturday that was out of the ordinary was when we were leaving Krogers he asked if I minded if we went to see his parents because he wanted them to see how happy we are. We went made Thanksgiving plans and everything. On Sunday we watched another movie, took my daughter and her boyfriend bowling and out to eat. We played Scrabble that night, which was unusual because he didn't like board games. I asked him why he wanted to play, he said because he knows I like to play it. I just thought, "Oh, How sweet." Afterwards, we sat on the couch and talked. He told me during our talk that I was such an independent women. It was a very nice weekend. He did at one point ask me on Saturday if we ever got the life insurance paperwork sent in to change the beneficiary. I replied, "Yes, we did it right after we were married" and asked why he was asking about this now? He said you know you get things that run through your head and just thought about it. He also ate little this weekend but blamed it on the cold. He covered very good. Looking back of course I question myself and these small things but at the time the signs did not point to anything seriously being wrong.
On Friday morning the 14th I found out that the center manager loaded Jim with 9-13 airshipments and then followed him. They stopped him at some point and had him to go back to the center where the district manager was waiting and fired him. He laid into Jim really hard. I was told he is feeling guilty about things that were said. Jim talked to the union guy on Monday morning the 17th, and the last thing Jim said to him is "They will get you if they want you!" This is the last words Jim said to anyone.
It kills me to think that Jim was thinking about this the whole weekend and was unable to talk to me.