Going Away

I don't know who I will miss most. We've become a surrogate family. Each one fits into her own pocket.

You only work there because of the clothes, says Hubby.

Of course not, I quip. There's also the jewelry and shoes!

But it has been so much more.

They have taken me to a place where I can trust my co-workers. I'm more free, less buttoned up. I recognize the value of lace and the personality of jewelry. My suits are less formal, my lingerie sexier--and it isn't for anyone else. It is for me.

The girls almost have me convinced that I'm cute, but now that they're gone...well...there isn't anyone to help maintain the facade, no reason to wear the classy jewelry with a t-shirt or scrubs, is there?

And the customers! We did so much more than sell them articles of ready-to-wear. We gave them confidence. We showed them how pretty they could be. We gave them a new sense of being.

Saturday we spent our last hours together, at least for now. We babbled about exchanging phone numbers and chatted about summer picnics....but in my heart, I know how it will end. It will be another of those glad-I-ran-into-you-let's-have-coffee-someday friendships, meaning well but not materializing. I've had enough of those, thank you.

I want to see them again, regularly and soon. They have given me a sense of self that I didn't have before. Not just a style, but a deep breath.....and when it whooshes out, I have turned into ME.

Tami, Danny, Becky, Theresa, Ruth, Sharie, Jodie, Dani and Eunice and those I knew only briefly...and yes, Abby, you, too--I will miss you. You made me whole.  Godspeed.