At the University of Calgary Library, there were some cut-backs and some room reassignments.
The secretaries in four departments were asked to create a report for head librarian.
Fazeela Kayuum, Brenda MacDonald, Ann Cowie and I were on the committee.
We called ourselves the A-Team.
We had new technology.
We could sort and file.
We interviewed many people in the library, transcribed what they had to say and created our report.
Later, the head librarian, Alan MacDonald, told other people that we had gone far beyond what had been expected and used us as a model of a team who outperformed expectations.
We did work hard on that report.
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| ...four women in a car heading through the foothills to the mountains ... |
We continued to meet together for birthdays at noon hour, spreading a table cloth out on the lunch room table and placing on it our very best pot luck offerings.
We met each other at coffee breaks.
We would have bag lunches and sit on the lawn, or save a table in the food court for each other.
We might be found in the university lounge, mingling with professional and support staff.
Or perhaps taking a coffee break in the Nickel Arts museum.
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| ... and we went to the cottage together ... |
I was worried that Brenda didn't like the trip. She hadn't said really a word on the 6 hour drive. I asked her about her silence. She said what was there to say. She had never seen this part of Canada, the Rogers Pass, the water spilling over the lips of cliffs, the acres and acres of trees, Lake Louise.
There were no words to say.
The four of never tire of each other. Now three of us are retired. Ann has moved away to Vancouver.
Two of us still get together with Brenda, and discuss our lives as though we are still working together on the A-Team: workmates for 20 years.
I am reporting on a long friendship and a satisfying memory.
Arta
I love that this penulatimate post is about friendship, and always about activism! xox (Gillian)
ReplyDeleteTrue friends like this are a gift!
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