With summer arriving, I have a lot of reasons to be excited, but the main thing that makes me happy is the addition of Wyndi Veigel to the Citizen staff. (See story on page A1.)
Regular readers of my column may notice that she shares the same spelling as my girlfriend. That’s not a coincidence.
I chose to be happy as an editor in the front page story and I can be happy and proud as a boyfriend here.
For those who may not have read my previous column about reconnecting with Wyndi. Wyndi and I first met at a newspaper seminar conducted by the Texas Center for Community Journalism. The TCCJ is an organization that offers free resources for the betterment of community newspapers in the state. It was previously housed at TCU and moved recently to Tarleton State University.
We got to know each other and became friends and eventually tried out dating…. It didn’t work.
We fell out of touch after that and I met my ex-wife who wasn’t thrilled about an ex-girlfriend always being one of the first to congratulate me on Facebook when I got an accomplishment. Because of this prompting, I had dropped out of contact—a move I felt bad about for years since we were friends first.
While packing away things away during my divorce, I found notes from a seminar and decided to message Wyndi to apologize. I kind of expected her not to respond but I wanted to let her know that she didn’t deserve that.
She actually messaged back and I found out we were taking new editor jobs at the same time. We confided in each other through good and bad days as we started our jobs and decided to meet up in Dallas. Then the Governor ordered everybody to stay home. It was April 2020.
We decided to wait for a few months to meet, but when we did, we found it worked better as we both had grown through experiences.
We had countless distance dates through video conferencing, living four hours away and eventually, she moved to Dublin after accepting the job at Hamilton Herald-News.
I can say I am proud as a friend, partner and now as a co-worker to know her because she is moved to always offer support, whether to friends and family, first responders or the community at large.
While I was serving as Chamber of Commerce president, she offered help at events with no complaint. When the Easter Eggstravaganza group posted their first meeting, I called to ask if she wanted to have lunch and she told me she couldn’t because she was attending the meeting.
She helped a lot in the organization of it and it was fun to watch her ‘in the zone.’
Through years of friendship, I can attest that she is a professional and hardworking woman that you want in your corner. I’m glad that she’s here with me and I’m glad that she’s here for Dublin.
Paul Gaudette is the managing editor at the Dublin Citizen and can be reached at 445-2515 and publisher@dublincitizen.com.