She announced it before Christmas, in a letter, giving the exact day she intended to leave and what she had planned for her future.

We met 8 years ago. We were looking for a data administrator for a CRM system in the company and she was the stand out candidate. She got hired. We got married. In the last eight years we have lived and worked together in an excellent partnership, we have talked work whilst commuting, over dinner and sometimes on holiday. We have attended training and conferences together and have seen 4 different versions of SQL Server come and go in various systems. While my role has changed only slightly, hers has progressed from data administrator, through DBA and Developer onto managing a small team working on a new CRM for a large contract.

From today, Monday 31st Jan, she is now working in a new database developer role about 40 miles away. This means a lot of changes. For a start we are both going to have to drive ourselves to work, no more shared lunches and no knowledge of each others systems to discuss options and strategies. I am going to miss her an awful lot, as will the office that has benefitted from her ideas, dedication and not to be forgotten, excellent tea-making skills.

We are still very happily married and I am looking forward to hearing about her experiences and what new skills she will pick up, I’ll just have to wait until each evening for the catch-up. The office will do its best to cope with one person less but it will take time as people, new to certain roles, build working relationships with other employees and find out what is expected and what to expect. No doubt things will go wrong and we will learn how to handle those issues but it will take time.

Good luck Annette, I love you.