Here’s the best part of this story: It’s not an obituary.
Far from it, Sally Glick laughs.
The state’s greatest networker — the state’s greatest connector — is living life to the fullest. Glick is just doing it in California now, living in Playa Vista, a small community in Los Angeles County. She has been for a few months.
Here’s the most obvious part of this story: It’s not a retirement piece, either.
Glick, 74, has slowed down. She’s no longer on the 24/7/365 networking wheel she was on for SobelCo and then CliftonLarsonAllen. But, she’s keeping busy.
“I’m not good at just sitting around,” she joked.
She has connected with one nonprofit, which needs marketing help — “strictly as a volunteer,” she said.
She has connected with another that is thinking of expanding to the East Coast — “You know I can help with that,” she said.
She has been to a few museums and been invited to join a book club.
And, yes, she even has been to a few networking events, including one at an area mansion where 100 people were seated in the host’s living room — “You just can’t believe how incredible some of these homes are,” she said.
Most of all, Glick is enjoying her ability to deepen her connection with her youngest son, Brian, and his 9-year-old daughter, who live about a half-hour away — depending on the traffic, she joked.
“There’s nothing like being together in person,” she said. “I can help take my granddaughter to gymnastics, she helps walk Rocco and she always wants to spend the night. I’m doing all the fun stuff that I couldn’t do from New Jersey. It’s been great.
“This is time that I never would have gotten.”
The experience, going on three months now, came suddenly.
Glick was only planning to visit with her son for a few weeks in the fall, but, when her condo in New Jersey sold quickly, it forced her to address the next chapter in her life faster than perhaps she anticipated.
Don’t be confused. It’s been challenging, too.
“It was a little bit scary,” she said. “I was leaving the best job I’ve ever had — one that I did for 20 years. That would have been scary in New Jersey. To pick up and move, too, made it a double whammy.”
Not knowing where everything is — the best diner, the best place to park, the best shortcut — certainly has been an experience, too.
Then, there’s the traffic. Glick jokes how it is the start of every conversation.
“I swear, ‘With traffic,’ is the first words out of everyone’s mouth,” she said. “And it’s true, it can add an hour or 90 minutes to any destination, depending on the time of day.”
Most of all, she misses friends, the thousands she seemingly had in New Jersey.
“I’m happy to meet new people, but I love who I already love,” she said. “It was a big price for me to pay to just pick up and go. Even with FaceTime, even knowing you’re going to talk regularly, even with texting, I miss what I had. And I will never be able to replicate that time in my life.”
But she’s learning to appreciate the California lifestyle.
Glick said she already has given up finding a good bagel, but she did recently go to a taco truck with her granddaughter — that was fun, she said.
And she’s eager to go to a Los Angeles Dodgers game — when they play the New York Yankees.
Of course, nothing adds to the Southern California experience like the weather.
Glick said she’s two miles from the beach (they don’t call it the Shore in California), so she doesn’t get the ocean wind — and far enough from the San Fernando Valley that she doesn’t get the heat.
“Every day, when you get up, the sun is shining,” she said. “It’s in the 60s in the morning, the 70s during the day and the 60s at night. And it’s like that every day.”
The weather is one of the many reasons she offers to friends as an incentive to visit. A few New Jersey connections already are planning trips in the new year. She says the more, the merrier. (Reach out to her at SallyGlick1@gmail.com, she said.)
“It is going as well as it could — and better than I thought it would,” she said. “Having good weather really is nice. It really makes a difference to your spirit. As does being around family. I’m very happy.”