Signing off, from Valerie

Today marks the end of something I’ve loved dearly for much of my adult life.

June 10, 2016; 9:36 AM • by Valerie Catrow

This is hard to write.

Today marks the end of something I’ve loved dearly for much of my adult life.

Let me back up a bit…

On Monday afternoon, shortly before Ross published The Saddest Thing Ever Written, I sat down with a close friend of ours to fill him in on what was about to happen. This friend is also our pastor and my boss, so it made sense to loop him in on why I’d probably be crying at my desk within the hour. Once his eyes found their usual place back in their sockets, this friend passed along some encouragement for Ross and I in the days, weeks, and months ahead.

“You need to let yourselves mourn,” he said.

Mourn? Mourn? Such a dramatic word for a website.

But over the last couple of days, I’ve realized he’s absolutely right. For us-and, I think, for lots of you-RVANews isn’t…wasn’t…just a website. RVANews launched in the fall of 2007, a year before Ross and I welcomed our son into the world. In many ways it was our first baby. It was very much part of our family.

By extension, so are all of you.

So I’m sad. I will miss RVANews, and I will miss you. The sadness won’t last forever, I know, but the missing surely will. And snuggled right up next to it are two feelings I just can’t shake: pride and gratitude. Pride in this thing we did and gratitude for all of you who chose to be part of it, to make it grow, to make it something that will be missed.

Thank you, Richmond. Thank you for loving our baby.