The Agency Holiday Party

The Agency Holiday Party

“If you reveal your secrets to the wind, you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees.”

Khalil Gibran

When they think you might make it in the insurance business, they send you to career school for a week of training. I was a newbie with Connecticut Mutual Life and was thrilled to go. About thirty new agents were in the class, and we even went to a welcome party at the home of the president of the company, Dennis Mullane, and his wife, Kathryn. Little did I know what a wonderful impact they would have on my life over the years.

I’d never been to Connecticut, or the east coast for that matter, but I learned a lot, made some good friends, and forty years later, they are still my good friends. One of them was Meredith Alden, an agent in Seattle. Meredith was super smart and could mimic just about any accent, a point that plays into this story.

Back here in California, Christmas was getting near, and our agency announced the date of our annual holiday party, to be held at our general agent’s house. Everybody was excited, as we had a great office full of people who (mostly) enjoyed working with each other.

A couple of weeks before the party, Meredith called from Seattle, saying she would be in Los Angeles. Her visit happened to align with the agency party, so I invited her to come along.

I picked her up, and as we drove to the party, we had an inspiration. When we arrived, I introduced Meredith by her first name, saying only that she was a friend of mine from the east coast. As the party progressed, I imagined my office mates wondering how she seemed to know so much about Connecticut Mutual and the insurance business.

After a while, I casually mentioned to a couple of my pals that she was the daughter of Dennis Mullane, the president of the company. That information sailed through the crowd with the greatest of ease, and I could see by the looks on some of their faces that they were rethinking their conversations with Meredith.

When we finally let the cat out of Santa’s bag, that she was an agent just like us, and not the boss’s daughter there to spy on them, the party got all the merrier.

Or, maybe it was just the eggnog.

-Hank