My Retirement Reception

Well it finally arrived and what a start to the wonderful day!!!  See Yvonne and John from Mississauga arrived on Saturday to visit with other friends here before attending my reception at the Legislative Building on Monday afternoon, May 25th.  There were a couple of glitches in the arrangements requested for the party but overall it worked out.  I just would not recommend another function at this place if asked for suggestions!

Needless to say I was still running around at 11:30 picking up various items for the event but I was ready with some of my quilting projects on display and with the committee help the room was also ready for the reception.  There were many co-workers, retirees, friends and family members who made this day so extra special for me.  Even one of my Managers from the late 70s and a Director from the 80s attended - WOW!!!  Thank you to all!!!


  

Gerry T from the 70s - Janet and Bob more recent Managers



   

Heather earlier on Director - Greg from the 90s and Scott my last Director

 

The Three Mouseketeers, Joan P, myself and Evelyn M,

as Greg called his secretarial staff.

 

Family:  Len & Sylvia with Pat - Erlene and Florence 

Doreen with April - Friends:  Yvonne, Barb, Angela and Eileen

 



It started off with an hour of mingling and partaking of the cheese, crackers and veggie platters along with the lovely chocolate cake Barb brought for the event.  Tom prepared a lovely Tree of Life slide presentation that ran during the event with the pictures I sent to him and he tried to get pictures of all who arrived but in the end we both missed out on four major pictures I really wanted.  Guess I should have had a checklist on that and double checked on what was taken before the event ended.  Oh well I do have some lovely memories that I hope I won't forget!!!  There was also a trivia quiz "How Well Do You Know Rose Anne" prepared by coworker Karen and her summer student Raegan - kept a few entertained along with the clothing and hair styles over the years!

Halfway through the two hour event the speeches started with Sandy Derrett, my Ag. Policy Manager, welcoming all and providing some of the basics before Dori Gingera-Beauchemin our Deputy Minister presented my Meritorious Award for 41 years, 9 months, 15 days employment with Manitoba Agriculture (it seems I messed up on the number of years and a few picked up on that).  Then Mike Lesiuk, who started in the early days of my tenure as a summer student and worked his way up to Manager, then Director and now our Assistant Deputy Minister, presented me with the Departmental gifts (my custom picture of sunflowers, keyboard cover for my tablet and a gift certificate for Mountain Equipment Coop for a daypack for my trip).  I expected to maybe get a bit "roasted" by Mike but I must say it was lovely with a bit of mischief slipping in.  Following this my Director, Scott Stothers, spoke a bit on our short but sweet phase together and both Sandy and Scott touched on my work, hobbies/talents, and habits etc before letting me come up to finish off the formal part.

My recent Manager Sandy was the MC and Dori, the DM presented the Meritorious Award

Mike, the ADM presented Dept gifts and Scott my recent Director wrapped up

I was especially thankful to have an ASL interpreter at the function as I was so nervous I could not put to use my basic signing ability for John's benefit and I truly wanted him to feel an integral part of this party as I did work closely with him for a number of years.  My speech was short and to the point I think and thanked everyone for contributing towards my gift, a new sewing machine which I'll purchase after my return from the Australia/New Zealand trip and to enjoy the rest of the reception.  So this formal retirement reception came to a close but the celebrating didn't!!!

Myself ending with a Thank You to all!!!

 

Dept Gifts:  Sunflowers by Tobi of Expressive Frames; tablet keyboard cover and
gift certificate for Mountain Equipment Coop which I used to purchase my daypack for my trip.



Gift Contributions will be used to purchase this Juki quilting machine once I return from my trip.

 

Again thank you to all who made this day so special for me, especially Sandy, Barb, Jacqueline and Darlene, the special ladies who made this all happen for me!

 

I can tell you it's now 6 weeks into retirement and I'm just loving it, don't know where the time is going though!!!