When I was a young woman (younger than Penny) I can clearly remember having a huge fight with my Mum about a dinner party to which I'd been invited. A group of colleagues and friends had all been invited (including me) to the home of a lovely chap called Mike (I don't even remember his surname). My Mum didn't want me to go because she felt it was 'inappropriate' of a 40 year old man to invite a nineteen year old girl to his house.

This experience has dogged my memory in recent years as I've been over 40 myself now for a few years and I come into contact with many 'young people' in my job. I always worry in case people think I'm behaving inappropriately by befriending the youngsters in our team so I tend to make people aware that I'm always there if they need me and always willing to go to the pub for lunch or whatever but I don't tend to spend much time with our younger staff other than that. It's funny because now I'm 40+ I still feel 18 and so it seems the most natural thing in the world to still chat with and make friends with younger people.


One of our graduates, Penny, used to chat to me in the kitchen when making coffee and I always liked and admired her bubbly personality and thoughtful nature. It rapidly became apparent that she was a 'square peg in a round hole' (and desperately unhappy with it) in the role for which she'd been recruited and so, with a bit of to-ing and fro-ing, she earned a home in the ad hoc team. She's been a real star of the team - everyone likes her and people respected the work she did for us.

I was saddened but also honoured to get a phonecall from her a few weeks ago telling me she was about to resign - it became apparent I was the first to know and I felt very honoured that she valued my friendship/guidance/whatever enough to make me her first port of call.

She has left us to study art and is hoping to make a career in art - I think that's so fantastic - she's really following her dream. Not many of us can claim that.

Her artistic skills are indisputable - she was responsible for the 'larger than life' nude man on my office wall on my birthday - something I'll never forget as long as I live. On that day, she showed me a wonderful book that made my spine tingle - a hand-written and illustrated account of the year she spent in Africa teaching children in a small village in her 'gap year'. I can't describe the beauty of that book - everything about it made me feel that it was too precious for me to be looking at! I bought her another blank book today so she can record her 'next big adventure' - I think in years to come she'll be so pleased she has recorded the stuff that most of us have to consign to memory (and then we forget).

Cassie placed this 'love heart' on her PC for the day today, her final one in the office. What a simple but touching tribute to the feisty, talented young woman who is Penny.