Please honor, with me, an unmet friend

I really don't know if eight or 800 people read my monthly blog but please take a moment today to learn about a special woman that shapes some colleagues whom I consider to be family and who, behind the scenes, are of service to many of you.

Five years ago Specialty Box received a cold call from a young business man named John Verrier Jr. The phone call came at a time where circumstances had compelled us to cut salaries, reduce working hours, lay off a dear friend (who, I'm so happy to say has been back in the fold for some time) and seriously consider selling our family's 50 year old business.

While there are innumerable people and business relationships that deserve credit for the fact that Specialty Box & Packaging is alive, kicking healthy and very happy, I, without hesitation and with immense gratitude, would point to that fateful phone call from Import Packaging as the moment our small business was taken off of life support and found with a heart beating boldly.

Speaking of this vital organ, guiding anyone and everyone to the website of a valued supplier may have just given my father (the co-founder of Specialty Box who faithfully reads his oldest son's blog) a heart attack.

Packaging distributors are known for secrecy. Sharing information on valued suppliers is only moderately more offensive than selling national secrets to the highest bidding KGB agent. What if, God forbid, someone not named me purchases directly from my valued supplier? My industry advantage would be gone.

What do I care? I want great success for my friends John Verrier Sr. (sometimes he is called Grandpa John and at other times the Elder), Sue Verrier (John Sr.'s wife for whom I've selected no adjective because there exists not a single word that fairly describes her kindness and professionalism) John Verrier Jr. (whose fingers punched in the Specialty Box phone digits five years ago) and the rest of the Import Packaging team.

It is these cherished friends and valuable partners of mine who will forever be influenced by John Sr.'s mother Jo-Ann Verrier who, on Sunday January 18, 2015, passed from this life to the next.

Her legacy, though I never had the pleasure of meeting Mrs. Verrier, has blessed my life.