Change, it’s part of life especially here in Chicago.
I love the change of seasons. I especially love the warmer weather when I can throw on a dress, a pair of shoes or maybe flip flops and walk out the door. One of my favorite things to wear any day of the week. I love the summer when my kids are at camp and I have time to myself. I spend less time grocery shopping, more time relaxing and more time eating al fresco with friends!
The transition this summer from a full house to just me has been a bit different, more emotional and filled with a lot of tears.
I’ve had a lot of changes lately. A combination of changes, a mixed bag just like our weather. Between moving from a house to a townhouse, working on closing out our fiscal year at work, starting a new fiscal year, and finally my younger brother and the rest of The Hechtman Group staff moving offices from one building to another. This last change has been the heaviest.
While my brother moving offices wasn’t a “direct” change that affected me in terms of packing up my desk, it affected me on a deeper more personal level. It was the preparation of saying goodbye, an end of an era and closing the door for the final time to my dad’s office. I could no longer stop by to visit, close his door, sit in his chair and have one of our talks. I could really use one of our talks right now.
I underestimated the pain & sadness this goodbye has had on me.
I have spent most of my life going to my dad and then my dad & Jimmy’s office (1993) ever since I was a kid. I used to stop in when I was growing up in West Wilmette, my dad’s office was never more than a mile away. Whether it was across the street from Great Godfrey Daniel’s in the “Balcor” building or the office on stilts at the corner of Wilmette Avenue & Skokie Blvd (the office I worked at for over 8 ½ years) or the office on Old Orchard Road just down the street from the Cook County Courthouse. I always had a place to visit.
I learned so many things walking through those doors over the years. I learned even more when I worked for my dad and brother many years ago. I learned how important it is to say “good morning” to everyone in the office even if you first walked in late in the day. I learned that no task is ever too small or irrelevant when your last name was on the door. Whether it was shredding pounds of paper during tax season, feeding the fish or working on month end financials, everything mattered. It mattered because it helped keep the wheels of the business moving forward.
I have taken all of those lessons with me as I have moved forward in my life both professionally & personally. But one of the things I have learned the most has come from the inside and cannot be taught and my dad oozed it..... and that is pride.
My dad couldn’t have been more proud……this picture of my brothers & I had been hanging on my dad’s office wall for as long as I can remember. My dad loved his kids and was proud of each one of us.
So, a new chapter awaits without my dad just down the hall to reinforce his teachings, tell a story he’s told a million times or come up with a reason to get a medically prescribed ice cream soda from Homers. I know the next time I visit my brother the legacy that has been left by my dad will be deeply absorbed into the new space. It has to right?
Take care my friends. xoxo, Jennifer
