Saturday, January 28, 2012

Garnett Vance, Jr.

I had quite a shock a few days ago.  My boss passed away very unexpectedly.  He had leukemia and had been ill for some weeks, but no one knew with what.
So I have not felt much like posting.  I'm going to miss him ever so much...
But I would like to tell a couple of stories about Garnett, so that you can all get a feel for what kind of person he was.
The first one involves food.  Yes, Garnett must have been a purebred corgi in a previous life.  He loved food.  Really, though, he was quite chubby as a child and young man and I forget what he told me he weighed in grade school but it was significant.  He was a fat kid.  He decided to do something about it when he acquired the name "Husky" for the jeans his mom bought for him.  And while I knew him, he was slender and in very good physical shape.
So he would come into my office and if my lunch was sitting on the desk, he'd open it and go through it, inspecting it. Every day.  At first I was sort of horrified, I mean, that brown paper bag could contain ANYTHING, after all, it's a plain brown paper bag, right?  :)  But he would ask me what kind of sandwich it was and then go merrily on his way down the hall.  It cracked me up.  I finally told Janie, another employee, that she had to come and check my lunch every day because I missed him doing it. And then nearly cried when she came in and did so one day.  :)
Another funny story, Garnett had bought something like $400 worth of country ham.  (I will save the explanation of what country ham is, exactly, for another posting.)  This was right before Christmas and he had them in the back of his pick up truck.  He went around town to deliver them to friends and business acquaintances.  He stopped at the first place and took the ham in, visited for a short spell, and then came back out to his truck. Which was filled with stray cats.  He told me there had to be 30 cats in that truck.  Worse, they had gotten into the ham.  Not one ham, but ALL of them.  They had clawed and damaged every single ham.  He came back to work with a pickup full of messed up ham.  I thought he would be angry.  No, Garnett was almost always pleasant to be around and he shrugged and laughed and said "What are you gonna do?  They were hungry and I left the back of the truck open."  I don't know if he went and got more ham but suspect that he did. And the poor man had to be deathly ill by then, with only a couple of weeks left in his life.
But he smiled and made jokes and although we all noticed he was  a bit cranky now and then, and knew he was sick with "something", we had no idea that his life on Earth was approaching his transition to a better world.
Garnett was a great boss and a friend and he cared about all of us.
God bless you, Garnett, and keep you in His care. I know we will see you again some day.  And I miss you so very much....

5 comments:

  1. Millie so sorry to hear about the passing of your boss and friend. You had not blogged in awhile I thought maybe you were busy with a new litter of puppies. He sounds like he was a very generous person. Our prayers are with you.

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  2. So sorry for your loss, Millie. Your boss sounded like a remarkable man! Hugs to you! Karen and Disney

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  3. Hi, my name is Adam Brown, I am the GM with Admin Recovery, LLC in New York. We had a working relationship with Mr. Vance for the past several years. First and foremost we are all saddened to hear about your loss, well honestly, everyone's loss. We deal with a lot of stores across the country and I have to say in all honesty, Mr. Vance was the best. Over the years my rep Kelly and I have spoken with him we have always said if every store owner was like Garnett our jobs would be a lot easier and there would be a lot more happy customers. Garnett seemed to genuinely care about people, it didn't seem like an act or that he was just being a "savvy business man".. We shared laughs together on the phone many times, and he always went above and beyond to make others happy. Although I did never meet Garnett personally, I felt like I had to say something to someone to let them know we here at Admin Recovery (all the way in New York) are all saddened by his loss and we truly have lost a great person.

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  4. HE WAS A LOT OF THING TO A LOT OF PEOPLE. TO ME HE WAS THE BEST BOSS I EVER HAD AND I ALSO HAD THE PRIVLAGE TO CALL HIM MY FRIEND. I MISS HIM GREATLY. I AM ALSO PROUD OF MISS KATHY SHE IS HOLDING HERSELF AND THE BUSINESS TOGETHER SO WELL I KNOW GARNETT WOULD BE PROUD. THANKS GARNETT FOR TAKING A CHANCE AND SHOWING ME I COULD STAND ON MY OWN. I WILL BE FOREVER GRATEFUL.

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    1. I just found out about Garnett passing on 3/22/12 from a friend in BG area. I was a customer and referred friends to Garnett. My wife and I also did computer work for them. The man was just so full of life! Very unique person, we will miss him dearly! Please take care of Kathy in every way you can!

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