After something of a long goodbye, I am leaving The Monitor. It has been an incredible honor to have written for you all these past 14 months. I have many I need to thank, and a few closing thoughts to share. But first, a final story.
On Saturday, after one of my last walkabouts up Mount Helena, I went to the L&P. I sorely needed green peppers, to cook with a pair of long neglected onions that had been sitting in my apartment since March. I gathered my produce and a few other things. Jean Shea and Colleen Wilson, a pair of L&P employees who have, since my arrival in February 2024, been unrelenting sources of kindness and encouragement, as well as dear friends, chirped at me as I flitted from place to place about the store. I was quite pleased with myself, and with the lovely little Saturday it was turning out to be.
Upon my arrival to the check-out station, I found Colleen and Jean in stern conference with a frantic young man. The boy, no older than 14, had a budget of 10 dollars to purchase what he called “a belated Valentine’s Day gift” for a girl in his class. He was asking Colleen and Jean for gift recommendations, and sputtering out a list of things he thought she might like. I laughed. The boy, like myself many, many, times this past year, had found himself far beyond his depth and ability.
