Editor’s note: At the end of December we will say farewell and happy retirement to freelancer writer Norma Engelberg, whose byline you’ve read on coverage of Woodland Park School District Board of Education meetings, Woodland Park City Council meetings, Cripple Creek City Council meetings and more in The Courier for more than two decades. Norma wanted a chance to say goodbye to our readers in a farewell column, to which I yield the usual space given to my weekly column. You’ll still find her articles from meetings in the next couple of weeks’ editions. We’ll miss you, and thank you, Norma. Enjoy retirement and especially time with your grandchildren.

I’m retiring after 23 years of covering what’s happened, is happening and possibly will happen in Teller County, to the best of my ability.

First, I want to thank all of you who have let me become part of your community. The ups have outweighed the downs and it’s been mostly fun.

Next, I thought you might like to know how I got here. So here goes.

How I became a journalist.

As a child, I always liked writing, but Writing for a Living? Who does that?

Nope, I wanted to be an astronaut, although there were no female astronauts at the time. Extreme nearsightedness ended that dream. What I thought were inadequate math skills killed my next dream of becoming an astronomer. Although, looking back, I wasn’t that bad at math — I could have learned.

As an Army Brat, I grew up in a lot of places but, as an adult I lived in Colorado Springs, my mother’s hometown; Pueblo, where I went to college, and Niles, Mich., where I met Frank. We married here in Colorado but lived in Michigan for 16 years.

We had four kids and were married 19 years.

For almost half of those years, I was Frank’s caregiver. Even when well controlled, diabetes is a terrible disease; the damage it causes is cumulative. It was worse 30 years ago, when control was more difficult to attain and maintain.

Frank was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when he was 15. He died in early 1993 at age 45, after years on kidney dialysis, losing a leg and his vision.

I was going to stay in Michigan until my 10-year-old daughter graduated from high school, but life had other plans.

In July 1993, my mother died in a terrible accident that made a splash on local media. I thought my dad needed me, so I moved here a few months later. He didn’t, but here I am.

I went to college on my family-survivor benefits. I had no real plans, and, with better funding, I might have become a professional student.

My first year at Pikes Peak Community College — now a state college — was spent taking core classes and catching up on the math I forgot during the 24 years since graduating from high school … Go Palmer!

My English Composition instructor liked my work. “If you don’t mind being poor, go into journalism,” he said. Being poor didn’t scare me, so that’s what I did. As a sophomore, I enrolled in several mass-media classes and took a bunch of anthropology and biology courses.

Besides the instructor’s advice, I also based my decision on how the media treated my family after mom’s accident. I wanted to do better than stalking innocent family members and asking inane questions. When I told my dad I was going into journalism, he threw his shoe at me.

In 1997, after earning an Associate Degree at PPCC, I transferred to the University of Southern Colorado, now Colorado State University, Pueblo, where I majored in Mass Communications, minored in sociology, and earned a Bachelor of Science degree.

Before I graduated in 1999, I sent my resume and clippings to newspapers all over central Colorado. Three days after I graduated, I started a 25-hour-a-week writing and editing job at the Pueblo Business Journal.

Later that summer, I interviewed with the Flume in Park County. I wasn’t offered the job and wouldn’t have taken it anyway after learning that local “affordable housing” probably wouldn’t have indoor plumbing.

That same year, in late August, the Ute Pass Courier and Gold Rush called. Publisher Rob Carrigan interviewed me and took me around to meet the rest of the crew. He said I would hear from him within 48 hours, but when I arrived home in Pueblo, a phone message said I was in. I started my new job at The Courier on Sept. 4, 1999. And the rest is, as they say, history.

Finally, I want to share what I’ve learned while covering hundreds of meetings:

• Common sense isn’t as common as it used to be and, for some people, the common good is whatever is good for them.

• Stay optimistic — trust people unless they prove untrustworthy.

• Elected officials sometimes forget they represent everybody — people who voted for other candidates, and those who couldn’t or didn’t vote at all.

• While most public officials want to serve the public, a few think their job is to make sure they get theirs and you don’t.

• Officials, there’s a difference between fiscal responsibility and tightfistedness. The taxpayer’s money isn’t yours. It doesn’t matter that voters approve something you think is a mistake. Your job is to make whatever they approved happen as soon as possible.

• On meetings: Keep them short. Don’t talk too much. Check egos at the door. Don’t grandstand. Be direct. Tell the truth. Remember, we have open meeting laws for a reason. There may be no stupid questions, but there are certainly dumb answers.

• If you’re going to cite the U.S. Constitution, you should read it first — it isn’t long. If you don’t understand it, seek an explanation from an impartial source. Beware of ulterior motives and twisted interpretations.

• A fair, impartial, and unfettered media is necessary to maintain democracy.

• “Alternative facts” is another name for FICTION and, of course, LIES.

Norma Engelberg has been a Courier reporter/correspondent for 23 years. She plans to retire at the end of 2022.

Pikes Peak Courier reporter Norma Engelberg, right, visits the Peppino Produce booth at the Woodland Park Farmers Market in July 2018. Camera-shy since that time, she’s been a longtime volunteer for the farmers market.

Suzanne Core