This has been a week of good-byes. Some left the department. Some are leaving the state. Some simply went to a better place. It's funny how deeply a departure affects you. It doesn't matter if it was expected or not. The impact can still be profound.

One we took to lunch yesterday, a small gesture of thank you and farewell. It had been expected for months. Prior knowledge should have given me time to prepare and I was unfazed until the hug. That was when it hit. Everything before that was never really good-bye. The finality, the letting go, was in the embrace.

One I learned about over the phone. A distant relation, my grandfather's cousin, had passed away. According to the local obituary, he had been "a patriarch of the Chinese-American community" and one of the "most influential businessmen and philanthropists" in the Santa Cruz and Monterey regions. I never met the man. He was always more of a legend than a real person. Even so, I'm sure he had an impact on my life, but I'm uncertain of what his passing means to me yet.

One said good-bye today. There was no fanfare or recognition of service. There should have been. Boxes were packed and a cubicle was cleared out. A quick, unceremonious farewell concluded with one hand holding a lamp and the other turning a doorknob to leave. That was thirty minutes ago. I'll be feeling that good-bye for some time to come.