Retire (Farewell) Party was Fantastic

Thursday afternoon (3:30 - 6:00) was our Farewell party at the CEC for Shelley and me. It started off with a mass celebrated by Father Tom just back from his sabattical in Europe. As always, the mass by Father Tom was wonderful and uplifting. Shelley and I will miss his homilies and joyous spirit while we are away. Larry Brown was the master of ceremonies and the silver-tongued devil was as witty and charming as he always is.

Shelly's ex students had a musical tribute for her and IT, not to be outdone, had Brent skyping in from Calgary to wish us well in retirement. The superintendents, Tom and Denise, spoke eloquently as always. There was much cake, wine, and of course the beer bar manned by the tar benders Doogie and Francis. They even had some 'girlie' beer for me :-)

The evening finished off with a tribute by Becki entitled memories. Becki was in London but had recorded it for Shelley earlier on in the week. I finished off with a "Thanks for the Opportunities" talk thanking many people in the school board for the opportunity they gave me to 'do my stuff'. I think the ivory tower word for it is 'self-actualize'. Unfortunately I missed a slide where I was going to thank my Mother for all her support, my wife Shelley for enabling me, and my two children Jordan and Jaime for being the wonderful children they were and never causing me a moment's grief.

After the Board celebration we headed over to Billy Fox's house where 25 close friends were treated to a great barbecue by Bill and Martha and were then entertained by Joe with many very humorous jokes and anecdotes. I have not laughed that hard in a long time.

All in all, a great night.

Jim