Journalists routinely report on calamity and death. But even the most seasoned reporters cannot be prepared when tragedy comes home, when we have to report on the passing of a friend and colleague.
Lateef Mungin, a reporter at CNN, died Friday in Atlanta. He was 41.
He suffered seizures at his desk in the CNN newsroom early Tuesday and after he fought to survive for several days at Atlanta's Grady Memorial Hospital, his heart gave out.
It's difficult, as Mungin's friends all said, to anecdotally sum up someone you loved. It's that much harder when you're not even ready to accept that he's no longer with us. That he is gone too soon.
He will be missed in ways you might imagine -- the absence of a regular byline to a media organization -- and in ways that are intangible.
Mungin worked for The CNN Wire, a group of reporters and editors who produce original news stories that are published on CNN.com and are utilized by all CNN networks. The pressure to get stories out quickly and accurately can be great, especially when there are a lot of news developments here in the United States and around the world. Think Boston bombings or the Arab Spring.
On nights when things were crazy, Mungin was a steady force.
He was a giant in his humanity. Cool, but understated cool. Dapper. With a glint in his eye, a sly smile slipping from his lips.
I worked with Mungin at CNN and for many years before that at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. We shared friends and acquaintances and as the wretched news of his death spread in our circles, a common theme quickly emerged: Mungin always smiled. And he made other people smile.
He was the guy who brought the funny to the table, the guy who kept us all laughing, even on bad days. He was the guy who started colleagues on pun-offs, epic wordplay battles that he refereed. The guy who picked a song of the night that related to the news. A small harmless earthquake in D.C.? Let's hear "Shake, Rattle and Roll."
He was the guy who, in the middle of fast and furious news developments, called us over to say: Hey, take a break. No one's too busy for a cat video.
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