The time has come...

I always thought I would know when the time was right. And now, even though I feel that time has come, it is still a difficult decision. This is my last editorial as I will be retiring from my job at Sentinel at the end of this week. I plan to continue my morning job at the Stockton Housing Authority. This decision did not come easy as I love working with Susan, Virgi and Bart, and have had a great time working here for almost 15 years—they are like family to me; and I love them dearly.

There is sort of a line in the sand, so to speak, as you get closer to age 65. That’s the birthday you’ve looked forward to all your life! Right? When you’re middle-aged, you start to dream of “65” as the magical age that speaks of free time, new adventures, less stress, etc. Well, I’ve got news for you: it’s not like there’s a switch that you can just flip and make a drastic change. These days, at least for many of us, you can’t just flip that switch on your 65th birthday—at least I couldn’t. I just couldn’t do it because I love what I do here for the newspaper, so I’ve stayed on another three years. I have loved the opportunity to write and design stuff and to meet and greet people that stopped in. I really enjoyed those years of the office supply store, and I’ve missed it since we closed that part of the business. And as I said earlier, I have loved being a part of the Sentinel family.

I have so appreciated the opportunity to write my own column—Nancy’s Notes—and hearing from a reader every now and then has spurred me on. I think my favorite subject was writing about all the other Stocktons in the United States, beginning in November of 2019 through April 9, 2020. I traveled by satellite and was thrilled to discover how many people thought I was actually—physically—traveling. Being kind of road weary after going all over the U.S., I never got to the other Stocktons around the world: in New Zealand, Australia and the U.K.

Also, thank you for being great supporters of the Stockton Sentinel. In my job here, I flip through many other area newspapers, and I have no partiality when I say the Stockton Sentinel is THE BEST paper in all of northwest Kansas, and perhaps all of western Kansas. Bart and Susan are so committed to the heritage of their family’s newspaper business, and they do a fantastic job of keeping up with technology and trending ways of providing information to our community and beyond. It’s always a joy hearing from people who used to live in Stockton and continue to receive the paper years after moving away. When renewing their subscriptions, many of them tell us they look forward to receiving it every week and read every word. So again, thanks for your ongoing support, especially in the digital world.

Bob and I are not moving away but just making a few changes to “settle in” to our retirement years. Thanks, again, for great memories.