From Your Minister
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I am not happy to be writing this column to honor and celebrate Lorraine Dennis. No, I’m not happy at all, because underneath the honoring and the celebrating is the letting go. I hate goodbyes. I stay in denial about them right up until the last minute. Oh, of course on some level I know Lorraine is leaving. We’ve been going through a year of “last times” together—the last budget she’ll put together, the last GA to plan and deliver, the last board meeting. I know Lorraine is leaving. I’ve written a job description and interviewed people to find another executive director for the CLF, for God’s sake. By the time you read this, I’m confident we’ll have selected someone. But still…just don’t make me say goodbye!
I hate goodbyes and yet life is chock full of them. The garden is a long series of hellos and goodbyes as flowers and vegetables grow in their seasons. The plants are great models at knowing when to let go. People are also saying goodbye everywhere you look. Sometimes morosely, sometimes breezily, sometimes thoughtfully and with care. The hardest goodbyes, of course, are the unplanned ones—the times when there is no time for closure, when shock and grief are balled up in one and it’s hard to catch your breath, much less think a coherent thought.
But no matter how well-planned, how slowly or quickly completed, goodbyes are hard. We comfort ourselves with memories. We comfort ourselves by telling ourselves and each other stories about what we have said goodbye to, looking at pictures, remembering.
So here are some memories of Lorraine, observations about all that she has brought to the CLF. If you have memories of your own you want to share, I urge you to drop Lorraine a note or an email. Beneath her excitement about getting to travel when and where she wants with her husband, getting to sleep in and choose precisely what she wants to do with her days, I suspect she is also grieving. Your memories will help her to savor her time with the CLF, just as we savor our time with her.
Lorraine came to the CLF in 2000. She was brought on board by our Minister Emerita, Jane Rzepka, who writes:
When we hired Lorraine Dennis to serve as the CLF’s first executive director, we were thinking, “Wow! She can run a YMCA, and build a new one. She can burst into song. She can figure out any and all software. She can drive a school bus. Guileless, is what she is. She knows every aspect of a congregation. She can make grape jam. Build a budget. Whistle. Say just the right thing to a floundering staff member. Write grants. Inspire trust and enthusiasm. Make you laugh every day. And no one has a bigger heart than Lorraine.”
She said it was our mission that drew her in.
The CLF has always been about “trusting the dawning future more” than hiring for the here and now, and we knew that Lorraine could embrace our future, wherever it would lead. We got that right. Happy trails to Lorraine!
Reading Jane’s words eases my heart a bit, and also makes it clutch a little. She can drive a school bus? I find myself thinking. But we never used that skill! How can she say goodbye when she hasn’t driven a CLF bus? Goodbyes are like that. Moments of easing, moments of clutching.
Here’s what Beth Murray has to say about Lorraine. Beth has shared the Boston office with her for a good number of years.
If you want a good laugh, talk to Lorraine. Woven between her heart-felt and genuine sense of humor is a person open to change, open to opinions, with an ability to graciously guide the staff toward independence. Lorraine’s trust in the staff has led some of us (me) into over-achieving, in the hopes that she will notice. She has taught me to let go of the problems—even the big ones. “No small children have been harmed!” I will miss her stories, her compassionate work ethic, and her ability to turn our conversations into a song—Life is but a song cue! Thank you, Lorraine, for reminding us of the good works of the CLF and the good works of ourselves.
And here’s what Maureen Killoran, one of the many CLF Board Chairs who have worked with Lorraine, has to say:
Ask me about people I’ve worked with who’ve been unfailingly supportive, incredibly competent, and blessedly reliable—yeah, it’s got to be Lorraine at the top of a very short list. Oh, and did I say gracious? Creative? And a whole lot of fun? Those are some of my memories of Lorraine Dennis.
Here’s what I can say. When I was considering throwing my hat into the ring for the CLF Senior Minister position, all the people I like best who knew CLF said, “You’ll get to work with Lorraine!” I had not known Lorraine. But, in her words, we immediately felt a “Vulcan mind-meld,” and it’s been like that ever since. I can’t imagine CLF without her. Others have described her wisdom and graciousness, her kindness and efficiency. I’ll just add that CLF owes a debt of gratitude to the nuns who instilled a sense of responsibility in Lorraine that does not quit at 5 PM. And to Lorraine herself, we owe deep and immeasurable gratitude.
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