Goodbye Bill - Related Image.
Bill Allen
It's a sad week at the Forester.
Today we attend the funeral of Bill Allen, a kind, fierce and dedicated leader.
The loss to the newspaper community, and the community at large, is profound. He was a newspaperman - old school. A hard working guy - tough as nails - heart of gold.
I worked with Bill for three years and most of the times we spoke together he was straight to the point and honest. He was usually smiling.
The tragedy is that such a powerful, creative man could leave us at the young age of 61. He had so much more to give.
The office seems an emptier place without him, though everyone is banding together to offer each other compassion, kindness and support through the toughest days.
He died on Friday night and I was the reporter/photographer assigned to cover community events last weekend. Saturday morning was surreal; I wondered if my presence at events as though everything was business-as-usual wasn't in some way disrespectful to Bill.
So I texted my editor for her opinion and her response was, "He'd have wanted us to get the paper out."
That's when the tears came for me.
He would have. In fact, there would have been hell to pay if this issue wasn't of the same award-winning calibre he always expected from his staff. I hope we did him proud.
We'll miss you Bill.