He called me into his office and said "You know you can come with me to P's if you want, but you'd have to take a big cut in salary. You make much too much money and they don't pay that kind of money. I looked at him and thought fast and told him that I appreciated the fact that he wanted me to go with him but that I was tired and really couldnt do this anymore. I didn't feel like getting into a discussion about money because I realized at that moment that I didn't want to work for him anymore and that it had been taken out of my hands. I made him look good in the weeks that followed when all the clients and vendors we had dealt with over the 20 years we had worked together asked "why wasn't I going with him". They were shocked He was able to say "H is retiring". Hence the word retire has become the key work in ending our relationship.''
I had hoped for a decent monetary settlement but he and his wife presented me over lunch in a very nice restaurant with much fan fare with a huge box from Jay Mendel. The entire restaurant was privvy to my embarrassment of having to open this box, remove a very beautiful mink coat, put it on so they could see how I looked in it and have all that watched clap. I so DID NOT need this coat, but there was nothing I could do but accept it because it was the first time in 20 years that I have witnessed him doing something where he actually got pleasure in "giving".
I'm getting tired so I'm ending this now. Tune in again