It's been a difficult week at the Butler County Government Center.

When news spread Monday morning that Carl Butler, a 30-year county employee, had died over the weekend in a motorcyle accident, a somber tone was felt throughout the entire county government.

Butler, who was the director of county facilities and operations, was praised by fellow employees at every level of county government as a dedicated and competent worker — and especially as a good friend.

The government center houses the bureaucracy of county government, but it also is something like a neighborhood or a big family. Workers there see each on a daily basis, share a laugh now and then— and maybe talk about life. Butler, 52, was a well-liked and respected member of the county government family.

When a member of workplace family, or someone in that 9-to-5 neighborhood, dies unexpectedly, it hits hard.

And county employees are just the latest group working through a difficult loss this summer. August has been a particularly cruel month.

Earlier this month, the Butler Eagle lost its advertising director, Ken McElroy, to a heart attack. A relative newcomer to Butler, McElroy had been at the Eagle for just a little more than a year, but immediately on his arrival he impressed his co-workers with an extraordinary positive energy, a special wit and undeniable professional talents.

McElroy, who was 60 when he died, had come to Butler from Kenosha, Wisc., but he quickly integrated into the community and made many friends throughout Butler during his time here. Not only did McElroy bring unmatched advertising talents to the Eagle, he also brought a love for teaching others — an invaluable quality in a manager.

Another, more visible, August loss occured at the Butler Bureau of Fire, when Capt. Peter Stewart lost his battle with cancer at age 55. In early August, the Eagle wrote a story about all the city firefighters shaving their heads in support of Stewart, who had lost his hair as a result of chemotherapy treatments.

The family of men living at the fire station lost Stewart just two months after he was diagnosed with cancer.

Chief George Ban pointed out in the Eagle's Aug. 1 story that Stewart's extended family went beyond the firefighters he worked with, to include police, EMS and volunteers.

Not many blocks away, and at about the same time that Eagle employees lost McElroy and firefighters lost Stewart, hundreds, if not thousands, of city children and their parents Butler lost a friend and guardian, when Maxine McCall, longtime Broad Street elementary school crossing guard died at 76, after suffering with cancer.

McCall had been a friendly presence at her post on the corner of Broad and Brady streets, as well on Center Avenue, for 35 years. Over those years she no doubt offered words of encouragement and support as well as a sense of compassionate adult security for young children walking to and from school.

McCall's workplace family was partly in the Broad Street school building, but her family also extended to many homes across the city over many generations.

Yet another loss this summer was the unexpected death of professor David Dixon of Slippery Rock University. Dixon died at age 53 of an apparent heart attack while bicycling to Maine.

His death shocked much of the SRU community, particularly local history buffs. Dixon had not only been an American history professor at SRU for 18 years, he also was curator of the Old Stone House.

Dixon was well known throughout the region for his entertaining and informative lectures on regional history, particularly the French and Indian War.

Dixon's family at SRU included fellow faculty and even administrators. But his workplace family extended to the many students who passed through his history classes. Former students from across the United States expressed their sense of loss over Dixon's death, while at the same time noting his positive impact on their lives.

No doubt there were numerous other people whose deaths affected other workplace families. It could have been at a local law firm, at a grocery store or in a veterans group. Or maybe it was in a doctor's office, at a school, the hospital or any other company or organization. And with many of us having been through such a loss, we can't help but become more empathetic when it hits somewhere else.

Deaths such these are a loss in many different ways, and they also are a reminder, to people of a certain age, of their own mortality and life's fragility — a sometimes uncomfortable realization.

The loss of these five people — and the others — has made for some very difficult times this summer for many people.

Summer is thought of as a time of lightness and fun, but walking by an empty office or not seeing someone doing the usual things in the usual places has brought some bittersweet moments to this summer for many people throughout Butler.

Still, it's worth remembering that keeping those we have lost in our hearts and minds — and acknowledging how they affected our lives and this community — is a way to honor them and carry on.