Post Closing Celebration

This is a photo of a recent lunch I took clients to after we closed on their property in Astoria, New York. I sold the house myself. The clients are Bill and Sam Runyon, and I have known Bill since about 1990 when I lived in Philadelphia after college. Bill was the stepfather of my good friend Pam, and we have always seen each other at different events like holidays and visits from out of town. 

Sadly, the last time I saw Bill was at his late wife’s funeral in Philadelphia a few years ago, and he has since remarried Sam, who was actually born in the house I sold for them! As many transactions go in this day and age, we had some serious challenges to overcome to get this sale closed, so much so that it was almost surreal to finally sit at the closing table with buyer and seller meeting at long last. But close it did, and since Bill and Sam were up from Florida for only a short time, we scheduled lunch for later in the week. 

Astoria has some fantastic choices, but thanks to my Droid I found Trattoria L’Incontro on 31st Street and it was superlative. There is something wonderful about breaking bread with people after you’ve experienced such a significant chapter in their lives together.  There is a buttoning up feeling, a sense of completion and accomplishment in the space at events like this, and it feeds me to bask in that vibe. This is especially the case in this instance because I have known Bill for so long.

I don’t know when I’ll see Bill again, because he is now in Florida and remarried. I’m sure I’ll run into him again if we are visiting with his stepdaughters at the same time, but this will remain in my memory, along with many other happy recollections whenever you can do a good job for a friend. We do more than sell houses. Sometimes, we are master of ceremonies for the life passages of others.