Last April, our office secretary retired after thirty-seven years on the job. I had been around as department manager for the last fifteen of them, and I knew we were going to have an impossible time replacing her. She was unbelievable, to say the least. My impression of her was that God himself would have been jealous of her organizational skills. She had slowed down a bit as we all do after so many years in the same position, but she knew the ins and outs of our office so well that she was able to make her very complicated job seem effortless. One could easily see, however, that she was unable to handle all the calls coming in. It seemed to take a great toll on her, especially as of late. I think that might have been a primary reason why she decided to retire, as she herself had said that with little else she enjoyed, she wanted to work as long as she was able.
We threw her a great retirement party, which will be remembered as the one that everybody attended, including several who had retired before her. The fact that we all appreciated her so much was not only a testament to her work ethic, but also to her wonderful personality.
We didn’t have the...