It's the People I Miss

I worked last week in Larry's office.  He seemed happy that I was able to answer the phone, take messages, and make a couple of deposits while Mary Kay was on vacation.  The office is quiet and calm compared to the office of my last job!  In mid-week I realized  why I enjoyed being in an office again - it's the people!  I really don't miss my high stress job, but I do miss being with people.

Barbra Streisand sings that we are the luckiest people in the world if we need people.  Hooray for me!

Several people came to the office and everyone seems to have time to visit!  A former high school date, Mel and his wife, Sharon,  just dropped in to visit with Larry.  Larry had another client in his office so Mel and Sharon told me how they came back home to Culdesac and why they are happy without cell phones and the internet.  Imagine that?!?

Another client called in to ask Larry how she could access her money market account so she could fund a mission trip to Ecuador to work for several weeks in an orphanage.  I learned about her passion to help others!  And that she was the lucky daughter to get the prayer shawl I made for her mother!

A young man named Brad spent several hours in the office fine-tuning the printers and checking out the network.  I enjoyed listening to his tales about his family and we finally decided we were sort of related to each other because his wife's brother is married to the former Cindy Riener!  What a small world!

But best of all I enjoyed being with Larry.  He has the best stories and he knows his clients and their history.  He seems the happiest talking about their unique stories, not about their wealth or lack thereof.  He took time to show me a treasure chest filled with letters from Sister Henriette and other treasures from Mom and Dad's archives.  We wondered why we hadn't saved every letter Sister Henriette wrote.  I particularly enjoyed the ones I read from 1951, the year Allan was born.  She wrote on August 17, 1951:  "I'm happy to hear that is a boy and I'm sure the girls are saying, 'In all the world there is no other, like our darling baby brother.'"  In this letter she wrote about working with four other sisters and a priest to outline the whole high school junior religious program.  "In the past two years we've had a priest teach a course in marriage to the seniors.  However, since engagement rings and steady dating are common even among juniors, it seemed advisable to teach a course in marriage to juniors. " Sister also offered so much encouragement to both Mom and Dad.  Larry speculated that Sister's letters gave mom a lot of hope and she must've looked forward to them every week.  

This week Mary Kay called and invited me to a luncheon to meet the other business office associates who work in the nine Edward Jones offices in the valley.  I delighted in being with these other women, listening to their stories and found out some are early morning walkers, some still have small children at home and one moved to Clarkston from Santa Rosa.  The best news is that I got invited to work in another office in March when Debbie and Brad will be in St. Louis.  I'm grateful for another opportunity to be with people!  Lucky me!