I thought that saying goodbye to my McIntosh County Democrat office was the hardest thing I would ever go through this month and season of my life. I knew I would miss having my own space to write with Phoenix, my Demo-cat, but I also knew I would miss the locals who would pop in just to chat or keep me up to date on the local community.

Over the past few years I have lost key people who loved the newspaper and helped me tremendously like Johnny Bo who always wanted to deliver a few papers to the local businesses, Ms. Emmy Stidham, Checotah’s hometown cheerleader, who always brought me information for the paper and schooled me on a regular basis, and Checotah City Councilwoman Jerri Reaves who liked to wait for the newspapers to arrive early on Wednesdays and take a few to the local nursing home to “keep the little elderly people informed of what’s going on in their corner of the world.” These people meant so much to me as I worked hard to be “The Paper Lady” by writing local stories after taking tons of pictures, sharing recent news and selling advertising as well once there was only me in the Checotah office.

However, as I loaded up the last of my personal and professional things out of the office this past Friday I received a devastating phone call asking me why so many police officers and an ambulance were at my editor’s home. Immediately I called my boss who had emergency numbers for everyone and we prayed for the best. Unfortunately for us, that best was God taking our well-seasoned editor Jerry Fink home to be free from cancer forever.

It’s still hard to wrap my head around Jerry not being in his seat at the Eufaula office and not seeing him out taking pictures and getting the latest story in our communities. Jerry has been the editor of our two local papers for 14 years and the past eight years I have had the privilege of calling him not just my coworker but my friend so saying goodbye has been difficult to say the least.

Jerry was always so task oriented and most of the time he was typing 90 to nothing at his computer or taking pictures at local events or proofing our local papers. He loved working the hard news and getting the facts. He was that kind of newsy guy while I was just the opposite. I liked the heartfelt personal stories that he liked to call “the fluff.” In fact there were a few times he had me write a couple stories because they were more in my lane of “fluffy and feel good.” He would tease me a little so I would go out of my way to make my stories as fluffy as I could so I might get a good ol’ Jerry eye. Tee hee! Gotta love it! I may have even made it my mission to make him roll his eyes on a regular basis. But I think I eventually grew on him and even drew a few “good job” compliments which was high on my list of achievements – to impress the Fink-ster himself.

Of course no matter how good I thought my story was, he would always correct it, here and there, which reminded me that he had been doing this beat a lot longer than I.

Yet one of my fondest memories was when Jerry asked me when I first started working for the papers and kept correcting his typos, “What are you, an English major?” To which I simply replied “Nope.”

Man I will miss our newsy guy who typed faster and louder than anyone I know and asked as soon as we were finished with one paper “What’s next?”

Jerry was the backbone of our two little community newspapers and he was an important part of our Fabulous Five – a name I fondly gave our 5-member skeleton news crew that put out two local newspapers each week. Our crew had always worked hard to put out not just two good papers but award-winning papers. So I’m proud to say that we did that as a team and he would expect us to continue doing it, even in his absence.

I’m proud to say today that Jerry Fink took me under his wing and trained me to tell everyone’s story as we worked together to help showcase our town’s special talents, skills and places. When newcomers would ask, “What is there to do in this small town?” Jerry always had the right answer – “Read the paper and find out.” People like this are what showcases our little towns and what makes our small towns the best places to live and work. Jerry believed that with his whole heart and he held strong to that belief, even working to tell our local news on his very last day here on earth.

The Fink-ster was a stink-ster when it came to working around the clock, even after driving himself to his cancer treatments, he would insist that he could make the council meeting that evening. We often laughed at his stamina because Jerry was one tough ol’ goat and put all of us youngens to shame when we called in with a headache.

I will miss his dry sense of humor and trying to get one up on him. I will miss his long arms that were great for taking group selfies even if he cut off our heads several times before finally getting one that was good. Most of all, I will miss his friendship that was genuine even if it was a little rough around the edges, at least it was real.

Though saying goodbye is never easy, we won’t forget you, Jerry, because you were more than a coworker – you were family. I’d say rest easy my friend but I know you too well and I’m sure you’re already asking questions upstairs and saying “What’s next?” So congratulations on your greatest promotion ever!