Green cakes and life's breadcrumbs - a small snack for International Women's Day

This year will be Resulting IT 's 21st.

in the early days, we were a small bunch of loosely coupled mates, working as contractors around a central core.

Next, we needed a small back office to hold things together - finance, marketing, operations.

Then, the contractors became staff, we gave them share options, and we found more contractors. And then more staff. And more back office.

Blink, and we're 100+ people.

Over the years we've gained people, and we've said goodbye to people. There's always a background hum of natural churn as we find our groove and gradually build the workforce we need. Gaining and losing players in your team is part of sport, right?

But, on Saturday, we lost our first person in our 21 year history.

Margaret, our head of Operations, passed away having had a very short illness.

Margaret was one of the first people our new starters met - she led part of our induction. This meant that everybody knew her, and she made it her business to know everyone.

She joined us on the 1st Monday of COVID lockdown - around this time of year 5 years ago.

And, although she was only with us for 5 years, she became an hugely valued member of the team and quite pivotal to how our slick back office runs.

At Christmas, before we understood the extent of her illness, she was voted MVP by her colleagues at our end of year awards. It was kind of a player's player award. The most coveted. She was humbled and really proud of this accolade.

Like me, Margaret was in our office most days. We shared early morning and after work chats about things other that work. She taught me how to make the best egg fried rice. We talked about her DIY projects, and we shared private stories about our lives.

Margaret was immensely loyal. I never heard a bad word spoken about her. Ever.

And, she was fun.

As a group, we're heartbroken.

So, given that it's international women's day on Saturday, I'd like to honour Margaret personally and on behalf of the Resulting IT team with a short poem I wrote to help me get my head around the situation.

I'm no poet, but wanted to say something, somehow.

It was initially a private thing, but fuck it.

Green cakes

Margaret made green cakes

They were wonderfully delicate

Light moist gluten free sponge

Simple decoration

Tasty

Margaret reviewed our contracts

Red lines

Clauses to watch for

Ever so thorough

Diligent

Margaret liked DIY

Little projects

Garden jobs

I bought her a drill

Cordless

Margaret appeared at my desk

Quiet and stealthy

She made me jump

Which made her laugh

Lovely

Margaret joined mid March

Twenty twenty

Covid

Not cricket

Tough

Margaret didn't drink

Didn't need to

She laughed a lot

And nudged you

Happy

Margaret learned German with me

On my iPad

One lunchtime

We cried laughing

Handschuhe

Margaret left too early

Still young

Full of life

So many plans

Devastating

I always try to leave behind a some small breadcrumbs of a message, which is ironic as Margaret was gluten intolerant (she'd have laughed at that).

So, here they are if you can stomach them.

Life's fragile.

It passes fast.

This isn't a dress rehearsal - no respawn or second chance.

Today isn't just another day as the idiom says it is.

The idiom is bullshit. Most are.

Today is one of a finite number of days you have to cram full of whatever matters most - people, laughter, music, sport, bravery, love, art, DIY, even work.

Look up from your laptop or mobile phone. Look around at the real world and the real people and the real places.

Look the people that matter to you deep in their eyes. Connect with them. Call them. Meet them. Walk with them. Arrange things to do with them.

Make new friends, connect with old ones.

Tell people you love them (but only if you actually do - bit weird otherwise).

Hug.

Learn something, read something, pick up an instrument, watch a play, stretch your comfort zone, do that thing you've been talking about for years, travel more, move house, get fit, change your hair, buy those shoes, or that car.

Live.

To close, let's celebrate the amazing Women in our worlds on International Women's Day - Saturday 8th March. Make a big deal of them while you can.

A few of ounces of empathy and respect for the challenges that women face in work and in life life goes a really long way.

Rest in peace Margaret Wong.