Odd title, I know, but it will make sense after I share this story.

Those of you who know me well know that I'm a regular guy. Won some. Lost some. A mix of likes and dislikes. Not good at some things. Worse at others, but in 1991, I was trudging along at my job with a house, mortgage, two cars, two teenagers, two cats. Get the picture? Joe Normal. In April, Elaine says, "Why don't we see if there's any houses for sale up at Goose Rocks Beach." (At that point, we had been renting a cottage for a week every summer for 15 years.) On Patriots Day, Lori Sullivan showed us about 20 properties and Elaine picked one. We made an offer and gave a deposit pending inspection and financing. That's where this story starts,

Our loan officer was Anne Marie Rafferty. Honestly, I don't remember the beginning of our relationship, but as I said, we were regular people and we put every bit of cash, refinanced our primary home to the max and asked for the maximum mortgage on the house in Maine. In other words, we were betting everything on our ability to make the payments. Realistically, I looked at our application and I wouldn't have made the loan. What made these two think that they should have a beach house. It took two months to get it done. Anne Marie ran interference, answered investors' questions, dealt with the underwriters and at one point I mentioned that her job looked like it was pretty demanding and that I probably would have given up a long time ago.

You ready? This is it. She said, "I know that this is a good loan and I want you to get what you want." It wasn't about her commission. It wasn't about her quota. She totally understood our compelling reasons for being there. She felt that she could get it for us and she was determined to get it for us. She made it happen.

Mark and Matt had great summers at Goose Rocks Beach.

Mark proposed to Robin on Goose Rocks Beach.

Kai and Zane call Goose Rocks Beach, "Grammy's Beach."

Melissa needs several Goose Rocks Beach fixes every year.

And last year, Melissa's parents, Nan and Jerry visited and I'm sure they'll be back every year.

Now, the title...

If I had a blog in 1991, I'd have written this then. I'd have emailed it, and tweeted it and posted it to Facebook and LinkedIn, so that everybody that I know and everybody that ever met me could read:

Thank you Anne Marie Rafferty! You changed our lives!

BTW, she's still working and still making her customers' dreams come true. Tell her I sent you.