I was reminded today, in the midst of one of the saddest times of recent years, just how lucky I have been in the associations that I have formed in business. The funeral of the son, and only child, of my primary business associates, Connie and Morrison Brown, was an occasion that took two people in shock from the completely unexpected event, and demonstrated to them that business customers are as good a source of strong friends as are any other aspects of one's life.

My father and Morrison worked together long ago at what was then called a Cabinet Shop, Wade Manufacturing Company. Morrison was a designer and my dad worked a bench, where the various furniture and fixtures were built. The close relationship between designer and craftsman, necessary in such a business, served Morrison well. Later as a designer in his own business, he would seek out those craftsmen like my father to help him with his projects. By the time that Morrison was doing his own work, my mother and father ran their own custom drapery shop. Their association started about three years before I went to work with my parents.

I soon bought out the drapery business and in the combined businesses, I now have a 32 year working relationship with Morrison and Connie. In some capacity, and often central to the project, I have been there in 80% of the projects that Morrison has tackled over the years. So long as I work with Morrison, then I am a part of Brown's Interiors, but having been a teacher and having a rather outgoing personality, I have developed strong relationships with many of those people.

Morrison set a standard for an exceedingly high level of professionalism on all his projects. Those of us who came in to take care of the various aspects of delivering the product sold and anticipated were always mindful that we had to maintain those professional standards. A few of us had extended contact with the customers on different levels. I probably fell somewhere below the finish carpenter and the carpet man in that respect, but my product was always the most visible, the last to be installed, and often the most anticipated. In reality, I thrived on the pressure to finish off the project with no dropoff in customer satisfaction from the day the project was given a go and a substantial monetary deposit was made. We were playing with big bucks, and customer dissatisfaction could quickly sour a whole project.

Many of the people that we have worked for over the years were at the service to honor Chess Brown, the deceased son. They came because they felt almost as close to Morrison as family. He had indeed reached across the usual boundaries of the client/designer association and become a valued friend.

And, it seems that I also had been able to pass through that line with many who hugged my neck and told me how wonderful it was to see me again, asked questions about my family, and generally showed a real interest in my life. I treasure those associations as much as I treasure the friendships that lie outside my work world.

Craftsmanship and service have taken a real beating over the last many years. The market for the really good work that is related to interior design has grown smaller and smaller. Most of us who are still in the business have seen our potential customer bases shrink by 90% or more. Many of the people who could be producing first rate products have taken to producing second rate products to increase that potential customer base. Today, I get more work in Blowing Rock than I get out of the whole of Union County. I have watched as even the wealthy have often gone the cheap, second rate, route in homes that cost them millions of dollars. It is sad, to say the least.

One of my favorite mental images took place in an apartment where a carpenter and the wealthy widow who was having work done to redo the living room of her apartment, pushed aside the clutter of reconstruction, put a linen tablecloth over a work table, and sat on two work benches to have their wine and finger sandwiches while they talked of an opera both had seen in New York. It tells me that we can indeed span the usual lines of relationships and be rewarded in the process. I have seen many variations on this theme over the years and have even had a concert pianist play classical music for me on her baby grand while I hung draperies in her large music room. That same lady's daughter walked and talked with me through the receiving line after the service. Good friends are where you are willing to make them.

Two years, almost to the date of Chess's death, Connie died from the cancer that had been there for several years.  Morrison is by himself, confused, and unable to take care of himself.  This has to be one of the saddest situations that I have ever seen.  Brown's Interiors, Inc. no longer exists and the lot of us are scattered..