PAPER

As I sit here with my new notebook my thoughts are of all the wrapping paper in the garage that I need to take care of. Paper has been on my mind a lot lately. As the wife of a Human Resources Manager of a Paper company, paper has been a constant in our married life. Last week we learned that the last of the six mills Jeff has worked at will be permanently shut down on Dec. 31st.
This is a very strange feeling. Our lives have been these mills, the people that have worked there and the products that they have produced. Missoula, my hometown, where Jeff and I met and where my family still lives. Ontonagon, Michigan, where Allison was born, her godparents, and the most snow I have ever seen in my life, also my first real teaching job in a one room school house. Who plows the entire yard on the first snow?? Neenah, Wisconsin, where Robyn was born, our year of a rotten job that taught us what is really important in life, each other. Watertown, New York, school for Allison and more big snows. The Partridge Berry Inn and free birthday dinners. Got to love two birthdays in January.Lufkin, Texas the majority of our children's lives. Great friends, warm weather and soccer that we will always cherish. All of the mills have closed but the memories remain and the friends are still only a phone call away.
So this is my paper of today, a small notebook , but with the power to contact all of these friends in one easy click. Mills will close and life moves on but the power the PAPER has had created bonds that will never be broken.