Photo Credit: Courtesy Ron Ciancutti
“Life is a series of hellos and goodbyes. I’m afraid it’s time for goodbye again.”
Billy Joel—“Say Goodbye to Hollywood”
One of my assistants retired last week. She’s been with me for 20 years. We’ve seen a lot together. There have been a number of changes in the company and in our personal lives throughout those years. Changes in philosophies, direction, purpose; each phase had its merits and its liabilities. We laughed, we cried, we commiserated and celebrated through all those years. Children were born and they accomplished things; they let us down, too. We compared notes, found reason to encourage each other, and more than once reached out to each other’s spouses to let them know when the other was going through a particularly hard time at work. She is 10 years my senior, and her life is in a different stage than mine, but not a lot different. In our time together, we buried our fathers and welcomed extended family members into the gang; we’ve often admitted that you never know what life will hand you. “You want to make God laugh,” she often said. “Tell him your plans.”