Good morning and greetings from the study, on a cold, gray, soon-to-be raining early April morning. Woke up to 38° this morning! I am yearning for the first morning when I can take my freshly poured cup of coffee (today’s pour over is “Nor’easter”, a fine dark roast from the good folks at Speedwell Coffee here in my town). I just want to sit out on the back deck and listen to the birds, instead of retreating to the study. Don’t get me wrong, the study is a fine place to enjoy that first cup of the morning. Aside from my bedroom, I probably spend more time here than in any other room of the house. But enough about coffee and weather and places in my home.

Tomorrow, one of my former colleagues, a woman who reported to me directly or indirectly for many years at my last job, is finally retiring. When I was hired by the law firm to oversee their then small billing operations team, back in the late 90s, Cris was one of my initial billers. In a nutshell, what the billing coordinators did (and still do) is take the recorded time and cost entries on a particular matter, and turn them into a bill. Cris was there on my first day, along with five others. It was a new position I’d been hired into. Tomorrow she will head off into retirement after a career of well over 35 years. She came to work there directly out of secretarial school. She knew how to take shorthand (and used it). Cris was one of those people who often made my job easier, and as I told her and others over the years, they made me look good. They say a successful manager surrounds him/her self with highly competent people, and don’t get in their way.

These days we’re in touch by texting every few weeks. She checks in on me if I’ve been remiss in reaching out. When I was undergoing radiation treatment in October, she drove into the city to take me and my wife to lunch, having beaten me to the check. I wanted to be there for her last day, but she wanted none of that fanfare. People will no doubt shed some tears tomorrow as she leaves the office for the final time. So, we’ll pick a nice day in the coming weeks and meet somewhere for a nice lunch and reminisce. Perhaps take a walk through the Boston Public Garden and see the tulips.

Enjoy the day my friends.