I don’t get surprised easily but tonight I thought I was meeting 2 friends for dinner and it turned out to be a surprise goodbye for me with the amazing speech pathologists with whom I had worked for 16 years! I hadn’t seen several of them for a while but we caught up so fast. When you work intensely, side by side with kids with special needs you form a special bond. I realized we shared the deep things going on in our lives as we were teaming to best help kids. We shared ideas, materials and laughs. But also I shared the plans for the house that we are now moving to, encouraged my friend to stick it out with her online date who then became her wonderful husband, and batted around successes and failures in child-rearing.
I’ve always said the best speech therapists work in the schools (now I know I am going to get in a little trouble for that) but I believe we sharpen each other and gain from being on a team with other professionals outside of speech. One of my colleagues is getting her PhD, and another has written 4 books of activities for Alzheimer patients that is successful on Amazon, “Joggin’ Your Noggin, Fun and Challenging Word Games for Seniors.” The 
others are taking on ever expanding caseloads of kids, working to improve their speech and language while being creative and fun.
My clever friend, Mary, even found the perfect gift for my move, a card game called “Play on Words” to keep me busy after the move. Many thanks to all my friends for the terrific send-off tonight. I will miss you all!
