Pauline Nomura and Terri Ishii, my former bosses. With the impending merger of the Honolulu Advertiser and Star Bulletin, I am hard pressed to write a few entries with the uncertainty of this blog’s future. I left the Honolulu Advertiser’s Classified Department last year, but always felt a true kinship and camaraderie with the people I met there. Today I stopped by because it was the last day for my two bosses in the department, as well as a few other co-workers. The Classified Department was like one big family, we worked alongside of each other in cubbyhole spaces, wrote funny notes to each other all the time, laughed at the bizarre and sometimes irate customers (it is easy to make faces when you aren’t selling ads in person), got irritated and upset with each other like a true family, embraced each other with open arms whenever someone was hit with personal tragedy, laughed and cried together and loved each other, genuinely and from the heart. Always, humor was the method of coping with stress. Going through two computer conversions, seeing the advent of online advertising, and watching the paper get it’s new press were some of the transitions that we all went through together. Now, there are changes taking place everywhere, day by day and hour by hour. Change is hard because it entails letting go. The future of many of the staff is uncertain, and it looks like the economy is not done with the pummeling as far as job losses. We are having to say goodbye to the paper that we’ve known all these years, but I remain so grateful for the relationships that were formed along the way and how they brought joy and meaning to my life. Thanks Pauline and Terri, and thanks Pauline for hiring me! It’s all precious time from now on, so wishing you the best in this new chapter in life. And to the rest of the Classified Gang…Classy to the End! Love you all, Melissa K. Davin, Pauline, Terri and Brigitta The “Classy” Classified Gang

Original Source of It’s All Precious Time