Names of the Dead

For 17 years, my father worked for a major utility here in southern California. At the age of 51, he was laid off and spent six years looking for work and surviving on help from me and a meager retirement. He finally found work at 57 working for Tenet Healthcare as a computer technician. It was humiliating work but it was work. In order to cut costs, Tenet Healthcare kept him on part time work for six years without benefits. He was given favorable reviews, but when he applied for full time positions with benefits, they were give to younger and less costly employees. In the middle of his sixth year, he began to develop respiratory issues that became progressively worse, until he finally collapsed in the parking lot of Centinela Hospital where he worked. After a week of testing, it was discovered that he had terminal prostate cancer. The cancer had metastacized to his lungs, liver and brain. The doctors gave him only a few months to live. No doctor at the hospital would treat him. When pressed for answers, his boss and the higher ups clammed up. We couldn't get any information out of them. After three months he finally passed away in a second-rate hospital in Inglewood, CA.