Ann Thurlow
In the early 1990s I had a little skunkworks project going over the Internet with Marg Meikle, aka CBC's "The Answer Lady." She was doing a bit on the Saturday morning program Basic Black about the Internet, and I emailed her and offered to help answer questions that came in from listeners. I was, for a brief moment, the Answer Lady's answer man.
When I decided to move to Prince Edward Island in the spring of 1993, Marg emailed me to be sure to watch out for her Charlottetown-based CBC friend Ann Thurlow. Being all shy as I am, I promptly forgot all about this. Until, 9 months later, I was sitting at my desk at the PEI Crafts Council while one of my colleagues was being interviewed by a CBC reporter. The reporter, at the close of the piece, signed off with "Ann Thurlow, CBC News, Charlottetown."
And that's how I met Ann Thurlow.
Later on Ann became my producer for a couple of summer radio series on Island Morning, A User's Guide to the Future and Consumed by Technology. She is about the best radio producer you would ever want, skilled at the medium and able to level criticism without belittling.
Even later still, Ann left the CBC to work for the Province of PEI in Communications and we again became colleagues, as I was working on the Province's web effort at the time.
Along the way we've become good friends.
Ann's daughter was Oliver's first babysitter. And don't get me started about her friend David.