Goodbye Shea Wilson

We found out recently that long-time News-Times managing editor Shea Wilson had resigned. She will be leaving for a new job in a couple of weeks.
Shea and I began at the News-Times back in about 1990. She arrived about a month after I did. I believe I arrived about three or four months after Roderick Harrington.
I look back at that summer as the day the News-Times was born. Some readers may think it the day the news died. We certainly didn't please everyone as changes have been made to the paper in the last twenty years. We did our best, though.
Anyway, Shea has been my boss for the last probably ten or twelve years, I guess. I'm not sure because it's been more like a co-worker relationship.
I enjoyed Shea's time in power for a couple of reasons.
One, she was easy to work with. She never flinched when she had to shell out for a week's stay in a hotel or when we had two-hundred dollar gas bills for traveling.
Two, she was easy to work with. The schedule of a sports writer who covers high schools is not 9-to-5. It's more like 7-to-2. Some editors want to see us in the office at three o'clock, which is unfortunate because there's nothing to do at three o'clock except sit in the office. Shea never had a problem with us managing our own schedule around our sports events. I started doing most of my work at home as far as features and stuff. I could go weeks at a time without seeing her and it wasn't a problem as long as the sports section was produced in the News-Times.
Three, she was easy to work with. When my father died, she immediately told me to go and take care of my business. She said to take as long as I needed. She's done this for everyone in the office at some point. It sounds like a no-brainer of an idea but not every boss follows this rule.
Four, she fed us at Christmas. Shea would invite the office to her house for the holidays. It was always an impressive spread. Once, when I couldn't get away she sent some rum-smothered fudge back to the office. How many bosses will do that?
In twenty years together, Shea and I developed a bit of a friendship. I always enjoyed stopping in her office and chit-chatting for about five minutes every once in awhile. We could talk about some angry reader who voiced their displeasure or her love of freaking bulldogs. Whatever. It was a luxury most people don't have with their bosses. That's because it's almost impossible to be a boss and a friend at the same time.
Shea managed to balance the two - at least with me. For that, I would like to say Congratulations Mrs. Wilson and I'm going to miss you. As a boss, but even more as a friend.