So long, it's been a good ride

You thought you got rid of me, didn’t you? Well, Erik had his chance to say his goodbye last week, and there wasn’t enough room left for me.

It is coincidental that I am leaving the Saratoga Sun now. I started the Saratoga Sun when my son Garry was going through another traumatic time of his life. In May 2005, I started working as an inserter. In July of 2005, the bookkeeper was diagnosed with breast cancer and I was asked to take over the bookkeeping tasks as well.

In September 2005, I started working full-time as the ad person. In June 2008, I took over as general manager.

Since May of 2005, I have worked with 21 reporters or editors, five interns, eight inserters and five bookkeepers. I have learned something from each one of them.

I have found a family in Encampment that I didn’t expect to find – the Encampment Tigers. I learned to write sports stories. Notice I didn’t say well. I, like Erik, did not watch basketball before working for the Saratoga Sun. The only football I watched was the Superbowl and that was for the commercials. I played volleyball in the army, but it was much different then.

Every Wednesday, someone always came in and said, “Oh, today is the day you get to rest.” Not true. With only four full-time people working at a weekly, there is no rest except on Sunday. Since September of 2005, I have had my name in 543 papers.

It has been a challenging and rewarding job. It is also exhausting. I never believed I would be at the Saratoga Sun this long.

My husband has had to cook many meals for himself. I have worked when my kids are visiting our house and I have worked when my son comes from out of town to visit. I didn’t visit my in-laws and parents as much as I would have liked. The news does not stop because we want a break.

When I started working as the general manager, I got several anonymous notes from the same person telling me what I lousy job I did. I saved them, but never looked at them again. They were mean and hurtful.

As I was cleaning out my files, I found all the thank you notes I had received over the years. There were far more of those then the ones I received in the beginning. It brought a smile to my face as I read those notes.

This job has been very rewarding for me. I have had great people to work with. The office has been my family away from home. Yes, we fight, bicker and argue, but we are also there for each other when we need the support.

Everybody in the office teases me about Keith being my office husband, but he is more like a brother. And we do argue a lot. But we are both passionate about what we do. Then we get over it.

Keith will do a good job, but it will take some time for his feet to get wet. He may or may not run the Saratoga Sun the way I did. But he will do his best. He is starting off much like I did–with a smaller staff. He will have to rebuild. Have patience with him. You can even argue with him, since I am sure he will be missing our arguments.

As I leave now, my son is once again sick but like last time, he will get better. I plan to spend more time with him. We are already planning times together for when he is well.

The most rewarding part of this job has been the people in this Valley. Dick Perue has been a mentor all these years and I appreciated all of his advice, even when I didn’t take it.

When I listened to Bob Woodward, the Washington Post Executive Editor, who broke the Watergate story he said it best – “Journalists have the best job in the world – they enter people’s lives when they get interesting and then you get the hell out when they cease to be interesting.”

Thanks to the people of the Platte Valley for always being interesting. I will always want you in my life.

Thanks to Gary Stevenson for giving me the opportunity to be the general manager seven years ago, and to Patrick Cossel for listening to me and help me solve problems. I will miss the job, but it is time for a new chapter in my life.

Thanks for reading the Saratoga Sun.