Several Days of "Goodbye"

Today was my boss's last day of work at Dickinson State University. She was offered a great job at Iowa State University, a position that represents a promotion in salary, responsibility, and reputation. It's a good move for her, but the "goodbye" process has been sad nevertheless.

Last Friday at our house, we hosted in her honor a farewell party to which we invited the employees in our unit and their families (little kids included). Susan made manicotti and garlic bread and created a beautiful and tasty chocolate dessert whose ingredients included brownies, cookies, candy bars, and imitation whipped cream-like product. We also supplied beverages. Everybody who came brought food items to share, so we had quite the smorgasbord. The kids had a blast playing, and the adults enjoyed eating, talking, joking, and reminiscing.

We had previously taken advantage of a day that our boss was out of the office to pose for photos that another coworker then manipulated on the computer and had an on-line company turn into a full-sized poster for us to present to her. It features each of us posing as an office-related superhero (each one an in-joke to those of us who work together) under the caption "ASC Heroes" (ASC is our unit on campus, and Heroes is an NBC television program that our boss likes). She was genuinely surprised when we presented it to her at the party. It is definitely a unique present, and she won't be able to forget us so long as she keeps the poster!

Yesterday we hosted in the ASC an all-campus lunch that served as an opportunity for people to stop by and wish her well. Susan made an electric roasterful of dee-licious baked beans for me to contribute to the lunch, and my coworkers completed the spread with barbecued meat, buns, soup, chips and crackers, fruit, vegetables, punch, coffee, and cake. It was sad to watch people bid her farewell and to be reminded that we were one day closer to her departure.

And today was D-day. Every time she popped into my office to talk today, it occurred to me that it was the last day that would happen. She has been an excellent supervisor and mentor over the past year, and I'm very grateful to her for all that she has done for me. At the end of the day, we all gathered in our work room, stood around awkwardly for a while, and then exchanged tearful hugs. Even though she won't be back in the office again, I expect to see her again at least once this week before she leaves town. Nevertheless, it seemed quite "final" to walk to her office window and see her cleared-off desk and empty shelves.

"Goodbye" sucks.

There's my sister Sandy on the left (visiting from Omaha, NE for the weekend), observing the mania of the crowd of kids and coworkers in our kitchen.

All the kids in the house Friday night were girls, and the entertainment of the night was playing "dress up." Here Hillary models the outfit and makeup that the older girls put her in and sent her upstairs to show us adults.

Doesn't she make a good clown? (Why, yes, those are Halloween socks on her arms.)

There's a little Moberg beneath that clown makeup.

Here, my boss (in the white) has just opened our "remember us" gift: the poster below.

Even if you can't make out the text or all the details of the pictures, can you at least tell that it looks very professional?