Saying goodbye is never easy, unless you’re talking to that nasty prison guard who’s made your life miserable for the past five years.

But saying so long to thousands of Guide readers is a different story.

Yes, your humor columnist and editor is leaving Guide and the Review and Herald Publishing Association.

Looking back, which is not all that easy to do with my brain in the way (although some would dispute that this would be a problem in my case), it’s hard to believe that I’ve been involved in producing somewhere around 800 weekly issues of Guide. When I think of the many, many lives my work has affected through the years, I am truly humbled. As a response to the role I played in their child’s life, one parent sent a tailor to my office so I could be fitted for what was explained to me as the “straitjacket” look.

Regarding reader response, there is only one word to describe the volume of letters I’ve received: countless. I would’ve counted them, but I didn’t receive any.

I still remember the first time I walked into the Review and Herald building.

“You should’ve used the door,” my wife said. Personally, I thought the nose bandage was rather sporty-looking.

It’s hard to choose the most exciting event during my time as editor of Guide. It would probably be either Guide becoming a full-color magazine or someone staying awake while I preached. Both contained elements of the miraculous.

As for the most memorable Guide story? It has to be “Danger on Mount Gilmore.” Or was it “Stranger on the Billboard”? Anyway, the story involved a chicken—no, wait, I think it was a rhesus monkey (I get them mixed up) who could play the jaw harp . . . or harped about a sore jaw . . . Well, anyway, it was a truly unforgettable story.

But now, I bid you farewell. I must go, because I have to be back here at work early in the morning, as I probably will be each day for the next half-century or so.

Hope you had a good April Fool’s Day.