After 35 years at TTI, Anna Jo Mitchell told the crowd attending her retirement party June 1 that she’s moving on to greener pastures. “It’s time to spend more time with [my husband] Fred. He’s going to be so happy,” she said to an eruption of laughter.
The assistant chief financial officer watched as Don Bugh moderated a slide show consisting of photographs of her childhood, her marriage and her children’s children. Bugh and others told stories of her antics through the years, including the time she crashed into her boss’s car. “It needed to be replaced anyway,” Mitchell said. “It was two years old.”
She told the gathering that, at first, she was not sure that she wanted a retirement party. “But it’s cool. It’s kinda like my funeral…but I’m here.”
One of her memories included some poetry that her co-workers wrote to her as she was preparing for her first colonoscopy. The poem included phrases like “the long and winding road,” and “if you see daylight, you’re going the wrong direction.”
Although dominated by laughter, there were moments of tears as well. Mitchell talked in general terms about the people she worked with, their marriages, their grandkids and their battles with cancer. “I will miss all of you,” she said.