March 28, 2008. Bethesda, Maryland. Regina.

I received a reseme in the inter-office mail. It was 1988, early in the year and early in my years of a manager. My practice was to interview anyone who wanted to talk to me, on the premise that even if I do not have a job right now, I might down the road. So I called Regina and she came down from New York to talk with me. Now Regina was born and raised in Brooklyn, and she sounded it. But her reason for moving to Maryland caught my attention. Regina and her husband Douglas were both employed in New York. They had one young daughter who was soon ready to go to school. Regina did not want Shatisha going to Brooklyn schools. Their plan was to interview for jobs in the Washington area, and as soon one of them found a job, they would move, and the other one would find a job. I thought it showed a lot of spunt to leave your family in order to protect her daughter's future, and even though I did not have a job I really enjoyed talking to Regina. I liked the spark in her eyes and the fire in her belly. Now I know this is difficult to judge, but that was what I was going on. Three weeks later one of my staff members quit, so of course I called Regina and offered her the job, not because of her skills today but because of my judgement of her ambition.

Since early 1988, Regina has been my right hand man. Now at the beginning her verbal skills were not up to snuff, but she was taken under her wing by Pappy Walsh, an excellent agent who was then teaching the Basic Training in the office. I was in my office, very close to the front desk when Peppy was teaching Regina to answer the phone properly. I was laughing so hard I thought I was going to be excused. But Peppy persisted and Regina wanted to learn, so they got the job done. In true New York fashion, if things were not done properly, Regina's response was to hollar, which in Bethesda is not the way to speak. She she learned...kind of. She still can yell at folks she likes a lot, but most of the time she maintains her pleasanr upbeat manner.

She has the wonderful ability to look at a situation and figure out how do it better. She is able to take on new tasks and responsibilities. She is able to conceptualize who the end is what I need, and then figure out the steps to get there. She really has a wonderful brain. She loves it when we are planning big projects. Remember at that time we were with Merrill Lynch Realty on Wisconsin Avenue. First we moved to temporary space on Bethesda Avenue, then we took over our new large office. Prudential bought Merrill and I still recall the day that all the signs arrived just as I was leaving on a trip. I knew that Regina could handle these new Prudential signs. In 1990 we moved to Long and Foster in a tiny office on Garrison Street. We were in this ten desk office, and we were 50 agents, but Regina quickly changed the work room so the agents could function, and we survived and thrived. Then we moved into our new space at Hampden Square after six months in our box office. Soon we expanded and then expanded again. Regine is in her element when we have a huge project in store, thank heavens, because in 1999 we merged with the Metro Office and yet a new building and a new set up.

Today, Regina is responsible for everyting in the office except sales and advertising. And her daughter, who we call T. has a Batchelor of Science with her R.N.certification, and is at Medical School in the six year program, where she works in the dialysis lab in order to fund her tuition. So what a good thing for all, that Regina moved to Washington. Everyone got the benefit.