Tomorrow I say goodbye to a friend. She's not going far. Just to the other side of the old courthouse actually. But we are moving across town. Our dearest receptionist is a post-merger casualty. For months I have watched as the little purple stickers signifying items to make the move have appeared on office furniture and wall hangings and hoped that one morning I would come in and find Mary with a sticker on her forehead. I want to take her with us. When her farewell card got around to me this week I had to switch colors of ink so it could be seen and squeeze my goodbye into a half-inch square so I know the feeling is quite universal. In place of the customary few words were paragraphs, from everyone.
Mary is one of a kind. She is perpetually house hunting, cannot write legibly, does not cook or own anything necessary to do so, and she cannot count by 50's (making for interesting holiday parties involving any sort of candy counting competition when Mary sets it up. 7,000 candy corn, in that little pumpkin Mary? We demand a recount.) She is the first face you see in the morning and she most often wears a smile. She will hug without questions and pray for your children before she knows why they need it. She knows everything about everyone and would never utter a word. Thank you Mary for caring, for listening, for sharing, and for putting up with our nonsense. I hope those lawyers you are acquiring appreciate you as much as we have and when someday you leave them your farewell card is just as full.
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