Dissolved

It's now official. McCoy & Connolly Consulting, Inc. is no longer. We signed the dissolution papers this week. This has been in the works for quite some time. I had begged and guilted Nancy to keep going for several years when she was clearly ready to be done. When each of our lives exploded with health crises two years ago, our business took a bit of a hit because we really couldn't be away. Thankfully, our adult children are recovered, as are we, and even though neither of us needed the "smell the roses" reminder after all the twists and turns of our lives, the time had clearly arrived---even for me.

When I read the document "Written Consent for the Wind Up and Dissolution..."  I felt sad. Not crying, death of someone, sad---just a realization that this tangible thing -our business- was done.We started out in the consulting world over 15 years ago thinking we might last 5 years; certainly not anticipating we'd make it three times that.

Nancy and I were workplace colleagues for 10 plus years. When our academic medical center made the ill-advised decision that home health was no longer part of their "mission", thus dismissing the arm of their system that provided continuity of care to their patients, we felt as if we were punched in the stomach.

"Want to try consulting?", I asked Nancy as she walked into my office during the wind down period of agency closure. Nancy replied without hesitation, "Yes!" A fifteen minute visit to an attorney the following week and McCoy & Connolly Consulting was born. Within three weeks of the agency's demise we had our first client-an agency in trouble after a disastrous state survey. We prepared their Plan of Correction and we visited the agency for several weeks to ensure the plan was implemented appropriately. That would become our specialty---"fixing" agencies that were out of compliance and giving them the education and tools to comply with  extensive state and federal regulations.

We racked up quite a bit of air and road miles, stayed in a variety of lodgings from high-end to a couple of dumps, and ate some pretty fabulous meals. We had clients representative of the ethnicities of the world---and many of them insisted on feeding us as if we were in their home. Most of our clients were good people-in home health for all the right reasons. A few were not. We got stiffed  once. Lesson learned. Collect a retainer. We got lost a LOT. I usually drove and Nancy navigated. She wasn't the best at directions, terrible actually, and she didn't improve much in a decade and a half.

Nancy and I are very much alike in our home health philosophy and couldn't be more different in many other aspects of our lives. Nancy lives in a rural area and has chickens and vineyards. I often say, "she grows the grapes, I drink them." I live in the suburbs by the beach. I shower in the AM, Nancy at night (very helpful when you share a room). The products I use for skin, hair and  make-up could easily claim the entire bathroom counter.  Nancy, not. I told her many, many times how lucky she is to have aged so well. We don't share the same political or religious beliefs either and yet---we managed to navigate even that difficult terrain. It all just worked- so naturally, so easily, so well.

We had a lot of laughs in the rooms we shared to save our clients some expense money. We also had many moments where one of us propped the other up after a sad life event and during other personal crises. Nancy is a good listener. So am I. We were a good team. The greatest gift of the business we had together is the friendship that developed during years on the road, in the air, over breakfasts, lunches and dinners.  The friendship will continue. I'm glad for that. This is a bittersweet moment for sure.

But---mostly sweet.