Saying Goodbye

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I used to work for a Courier company in New York before I moved to Florida. I worked there for about 3 years and made so many friends. The company wasn't really considered a workplace though -- we'd all consider each other best friends, or even some, as family. Even with our boss, we were all very close to him and he looked at us like best friends. He financially supported us when we needed help most, gave us a stable residency when we weren't in a suitable home or couldn't afford so much as an apartment. Me and one of the other employees named Jim always would play football outside while waiting for work to come into the office, my mother and I would go to the secretary's house for dinner, we'd have random in-office pizza parties, every Friday we'd have a "lunch-in" where everyone would bring in a dish and we'd just sit there and eat. Just stuff like that made the work go by fast and we all enjoyed waking up in the morning and heading to work. It wasn't your typical workplace, as you've already guessed, it was more like a second home where you'd basically got paid to have fun, sit on your butt sometimes and just eat or talk. About a month ago my mother and I went on vacation to Florida when we were still living in New York. We went there to visit and spend time with my brother and his fiance and attend his wedding. Then we all went on our way together down to Orlando, FL and went to the theme parks, stayed in a resort and just had all sorts of fun. When our vacation was over and we arrived back to our home in New York, my mother and I decided we wanted a change in life by moving to "paradise" which we considered Florida was just that. With lovely palm trees and friendly people, it wasn't such a bad idea, but doing so would mean we'd have to leave our loving job and our best friends. The last day of our job in New York started out just like a normal day. Woke up, had our breakfast, and headed to work (if you haven't figured out already, my mother and I work together, yes). When we got to work, we were surprised to see the office decorated with ribbons and "goodbye" balloons, 3 large pizzas and a huge cake. Oh man, we had the biggest party. We cried, ate, cried some more, etc. Later on in the day Jim and I played football outside for the last time. We played for about 2 hours, just playing catch and tossing the ball around. He took the ball inside the office, grabbed a marker and wrote "To my friend Joe, keep throwing" on the ball. He gave the football to me as a goodbye present with tears in his eyes. It was touching, more touching than I could make it out to be, more touching than words could explain, but we were close, and giving me this football as a present really touched my heart. Here's the sad part -- one day, this man will pass away. When he does, I'll look back at the writings on this football and think of all the good times I've had with this man. He was a great friend - I almost considered him as a father that I never had growing up due to the abuse my father had against my mother. It's hard saying goodbye to the ones we love, care for and have feelings for. But then again, a change in life is good and essential. We needed a new beginning with all the stress my mother and I suffered from. We have our friends deeply in our hearts and will never forget them. We'll never forget how much fun we've had working with this company. We knew we wouldn't find a similar and loving job with caring workers, but we were willing to risk it all simply for a change in life. Now that I've brought back some of those tears, I'm in a sentimental enough mood to tell you that it's okay to cry when saying goodbye. If you don't cry, it builds up and makes it even harder to say goodbye. Just say goodbye, cry, cry, cry, and cry some more; it's the only way to get through the day. Just thought I'd share and try to give some people a little advice when saying goodbye.:)