It is with a heavy heart that I announce that my store will be closing it's doors this Sunday, the 25th of January. Let me make it clear that we are not going out of business, but lost our lease to Coach. If you are in the market for a new handbag, this is good news. If you are me, this is very sad news.I have struggled to find the words for this post. You see, this store was more than a job to me, it was a second home. I spent nearly a decade calling it my own. When I think of a decade and what that means, it seems so small in comparison to the world and its history. But then I think of me, and my history, and it seems huge. One third of my life. My entire adulthood. This is rightfully a great loss.
I will associate my time there with some of the greatest milestones of my life; my marriage to Donald, becoming a mother {3 times over}, and the purchase of our first home {and then another}. Hallmark was there through it all. And maybe it was sentiment, but I couldn't ever let it go. Even when life got busy, and it made sense not to be there anymore, I had to be. It was a part of me. It was familiar, and I love familiar.
But now I move on and let this piece of me go. I'll tuck those cherished memories away in a special corner of my heart.....oh dear, now I am feeling emotional, and I am not an emotional person {I always claim that at least}. But I am beginning to think that I am emotional. Something about the last few years has softened me....made me a little more vulnerable to feelings. And I feel this, this farewell.
Farewell to my coworkers who are among my dearest friends. Friends who helped teach me, support me, laugh with me, and cry with me. Friends who will be friends for a lifetime {I guess it's really not a farewell then}. Farewell to customers who I knew by name. Customers who would bring goodies at Christmas and vegetables from their gardens in the summer. Customers who would shower my girls with beautiful gifts all the year through. Farewell to a manager who understood that I am a busy bee and accommodated my schedule to every last detail. Farewell to the scrumptious smells, to the beautiful merchandise, to my box in the backroom where I stashed away all the goodies that I wanted to buy at some future point. Farewell to it all.
This is employee number 1786, signing off.
