November 2022 Thanksgiving Gratitude Challenge

November 2022 Thanksgiving Gratitude Challenge

My final contribution to this challenge.  

In 1984, I moved to Manchester England to go to graduate school to study Archaeology.  I loved England, the history, the interesting architecture, being able to travel around a foreign country easily, and more importantly, the people.  English people, stiff upper lip aside, are very welcoming and inclusive.  

During my second year there I decided to take a part-time job to make a little extra money.  Looking around I saw an advertisement for a part-time secretarial job 3 afternoons a week.  How perfect, I thought.  

Little did I know that answering that advertisement would start not just a lifetime friendship but also catapulted me into a career that I have loved ever since, and that is real estate.  

The company was a small property management company, Steven Martin and Co.  The owner, Martin, and I worked well together.  As, Martin's wife, Sonja puts it, I became Martin's right hand and even after I went on to other full-time work I continued to do work for Martin as he liked the way I did things.   

A few weeks ago I returned to England, from my first visit since I left in 1989.  I flew to London and spent a few days there, then took the train to Manchester and stayed with Martin and his wife.  When I told them I was coming, they insisted that I stay with them. We had an amazing visit catching up from where we left off and touring the Lancashire and Yorkshire countryside before I returned home to Baltimore.  

Over the years, many people have entered and left my life but my friendship with Martin and Sonja has been enduring.  We have maintained contact, at first writing letters and a few phone calls but now with technology being what it is, it is much easier to email and pick up the phone and call using apps like Whatsapp.  But, the continuing thread here is that I consider this man to be the reason I started down the path in real estate and into a career that has been as enduring as our friendship, and for that, I am very grateful.