Jane

(Head Note: after January 2, bill@hutchinsonconsulting.com will no longer reach me. Kindly let your Contacts List know that my new email address is billhutch47@gmail.com. Explanation below. Thanks.)

Jane Carney grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska, attended the University of Nebraska there, and seven years after graduation decided it was time to taste the wider world. So she packed her bags for Hawaii (where else?) and spent almost three decades there. She made Honolulu her home, married, and mothered a girl, Megan, and a boy, Sean. She also commenced her career as an independent school CFO, at a lovely little PreK-6 school named Hanahauoli just down the street from Barack Obama’s alma mater, Punahou.

Jane divorced her husband while the kids were young. As they headed off to college she realized that she needed to boost her income (tuition!) so departed her beloved Oahu for The Park School in a Boston suburb, and after four chilly winters there took aim at the Bay Area. For the past eight years she has managed all the back-office operations and finances for The College Preparatory School in the Oakland hills, an hour down the road from me!

In April Jane and I stumbled onto one another on Match.Com (yup) and knew from the get-go that this might be something special. Last summer we spent a week together stomping around her old Hawaii grounds and introducing Bill to her friends. In September we flew to Greece to introduce Jane to my second home on Skiathos, and to Geof and Lida. November found us in Lincoln with 90,000 of her close pals watching the Cornhuskers lose a squeaker to Northwestern.

On November 11 I slipped a diamond ring on Jane’s finger. She retires at mid-year, and then we will be married in the olive grove out back with our children and grandchildren around us.

Weirdly, Jane’s family constellation matches mine nearly identically. We both have married (and pregnant!) daughters and two-year-old grandsons separated in age by two months. Her son and my son came into the world nine days apart. And . . . . they all like each other. This we know having just packed them all in here for three yuletide days of getting acquainted, watching the tots rampage through the house, digestive abuse, and a stroll on Limantour Beach where we conned a stranger into snapping a sunny photo of us all.

I am a lucky guy. Supported by my family and my friends I have found love again, and the shattering loss of Lori two years ago has been replaced by a future of hope and companionship with Jane.

And retirement! The sale of Hutchinson Consulting closes on January 2.

Kate and Tucker note the change in me. I’m a lucky guy . . . and a smiling guy. 2018 is a Happy New Year already.

 

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