The Speech With One Sentence Missing

Daniel was asked to speak at his former manager's farewell dinner because he had worked with her longest. The draft he received described her as endlessly patient and generous with her time. He stared at that sentence. She had taught him a great deal, but she had also made younger colleagues afraid to ask questions after mistakes.

He considered refusing the speech. Yet he remembered her staying late to help him complete a difficult application, when there was no advantage in doing so. Neither version of her cancelled the other. At lunch, he asked a colleague how honest a farewell speech should be. She said honest enough to recognise the person actually sitting in the room.

Daniel removed the sentence about patience and wrote about a specific night when the office heating failed. His manager had found blankets, ordered hot food and continued arguing fiercely about the project. The story made people laugh without pretending she had always been easy to work with. While practising it, Daniel noticed that he no longer sounded like an advertisement.

At dinner, his manager listened with her arms folded. Afterwards, she thanked him for remembering the blankets, then said he had made the argument sound milder than it was. He admitted that he probably had. They stood together near the coats, relieved by a small piece of accuracy. He had not settled his feelings about her, but at least he had not lent them somebody else's words.