Hanging with Mr. Cooper

Anthony Cooper, a colleague, fellow supervisor and fellow Pisces retired today. It was his last day, I guess a little bittersweet. A few of us were happy to see him go, in both ways. Personally, I am happy he lived long enough to retire. His last days, months and maybe even a year, he was in and out of the hospital with heart trouble. Lots of stress and poor eating. A lot of it he brought on himself. A complex character, he was tricky to work with. An old school guy who had issues with women, but women seemed to almost like him, once they figured him out. Maybe he'd refer to himself as a perfectionist, although I never heard him do so. I considered him nit-picky, expecting 100% when 99.9% would do.

Supervisors, Me, Mr. Cooper and Wink... the old timers.

He's also the kind of guy and supervisor who'd have your back; would watch out for you and be very concerned if you had issues outside of the job. Being Pisces myself I understood the dichotomy and as I learned more about his history and family life growing up, (older sisters), I gave him more slack on his perspectives. I worked with him for a year on the graveyard shift... it was interesting.

Everything with Cooper, is interesting.

By request, he wanted one in this outfit... my "get up."

After I became a supervisor I didn't work with him on the same shift anymore. Every so often he'd call up with some worry about something I considered minor and I'd try to get him to recognize how little it mattered. We would usually share a laugh about this or that. Some dumb stuff in the news or something. He'd criticize (in a friendly way) me for preferring to watch the BBC ("the news from across the pond") rather than the brain numbing (Action News) local news. He'd also get a kick out of my aversion to television, except for X-Files, and the way I'd talk back to the TV.

We shared so laughs and he did indeed cover for me on enough occasions.

The C/O presented him with a plaque thanking him for 35 years on the job, maybe twenty of them were with our unit. 

Will I miss him? Tough question. No more or less than anyone else. I didn't build any strong friendships outside of the job despite my 28+ years there. That by the way is nothing person, but by design. I may go into that later. This one isn;t about me.

So "Cheers, Coop. It's been real... interesting... no animosity intended. Live long, enjoy your life and don't look back. I hope and intend to take my own advice at the end of this year.

One last laugh for the road. 3-18-16 PAB Rm 110 R&I unit.