In Memory of Ann Kenna

Ann Kenna left this world May 3rd, 2016 

I first meet Ann when she joined Wolters Kluwer Asia Pacific as Regional HR Director in 2006. 

Ann and, I enjoyed a ‘colourful’ working relationship as fellow executive team members, colleagues and business partners. Her group providing HR support to my groups in Sydney and Malaysia. 

I will remember Ann as a supportive colleague who always gave freely of her time, advice and expertise. She never shied away from telling you what she thought you needed to hear. Ann had a generous soul and was always willing to share new ideas. She was passionate about principled leadership, a passion we shared. 

I hope David Lampert doesn’t mind me borrowing his words when he said. “Ann always brought a high degree of both professionalism, science, and passion to everything she did in Asia Pac.  And while her passion occasionally led to conflict, the organization, and the people, were always the better for her conviction.” 

When passionate, driven people work together conflict is to be expected. Time, allows us to see things with greater clarity and to understand the value of past-experiences. It’s in those special moments of reflection when we can say to ourselves, yes, I learnt something from those experiences and I am a better person for it. That is important, and part of Ann’s legacy for which I am  grateful. 

Ann played an important role in up-skilling our leaders from the executive team to team leaders. Ann did a sterling job in helping me to mould a young group of leaders in my offshore facility in Malaysia into a team of young professionals. We shared a bond and a sense of achievement in working with and watching these young people blossom. We also had lots of fun doing it. 

Ann and I shared many lovely moments during our travels. She was an absolute hoot to watch bargaining her way through the night markets in KL.  Ann had a wicked sense of humour. She needed one given some of the purchases we made. This became obvious with the customary ‘show and tell’ with the staff in the Lobby Bar at the Shangri-La. This ritual could be relied on to generate the customary exclamations of “what on earth made me to buy that”, followed by peals of laughter. 

Ann was forthright and courageous. This was never more obvious than when she faced her toughest challenge. 

I read through her messages today and this one spoke volumes. “This new Folfox chemo is brutal. I must have been a real dragon in my last life. But how are you?” Whilst Ann faced the battle of all battles she still had time to think of and care for others. I will always be grateful to her for her kindness as I deal with my loss of a loved one.

Ann faced her uncertain future with a courage that was inspirational. When her time came to leave her daughter wrote “She was eager to see what was next. Always looking, planning ahead. She had bigger plans for the next life, filled with more dreams, ambitions, and goals. She dreamt big.”

That she did. 

If I were asked to sum Ann up in a few words, it would go something like this. Ann was an elegant, professional and caring friend. Ann made a difference, and she leaves this world a better place for having been here. 

Ann’s legacy will live on in the many people she mentored and coached to become better leaders, better role models and better people. I for one am a better person for knowing her. 

Thank you, Ann. Rest in peace. 

The Search for Meaning

I've just finished reading "Man's Search For Meaning" by Dr Viktor E. Frankl. Dr Frankl was a holocaust survivor. His story is remarkable on so many levels. 

There are a couple of points he makes in his book that resonate with me. He describes how he felt when he entered Auschwitz. He was stripped of everything even the hair from his body. Naked, vulnerable and exposed. 

I understand that feeling not from a physical perspective but mentally. It's how I feel in trying to cope with grief and the resultant emotions not experienced before. 

But Dr Frankl goes on the describe how he coped. 

In one of his darkest moments the thoughts and mental images of his wife sustained him and he wrote. "I understood how a man who has nothing left in this world still may know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the contemplation of his beloved. In a position of utter desolation, when man cannot express himself in positive action, when his only achievement may consist in enduring his sufferings in the right way—an honorable way—in such a position man can, through loving contemplation of the image he carries of his beloved, achieve fulfillment. For the first time in my life I was able to understand the meaning of the words, “The angels are lost in perpetual contemplation of an infinite glory.” 

Isn't that beautiful. Sadly his wife was one of the ones who were so cruelly taken. She died in the gas chamber. He wasn't aware of that at the time but he commented later even if he was he still would have found fulfilment remembering her love.  

What he saw and what he suffered is beyond my real understanding. He talked of how people in the camps became completely desensitised to suffering. He worked in labour camps and also medical awards. He talks of what people did. Terrible things but he didn't judge them. Instead he said, "No man should judge unless he asks himself in absolute honesty whether in a similar situation he might not have done the same." 

I try to do that. I don't always succeed but I try. 

There is one piece in his book which is very relevant to me. It's the reason why a friend suggested I read the book. 

Frankel tells the story of an old man who comes to him seeking solace, completely distraught over the loss of his beloved wife, to whom he was married for many years.  Frankel asks him how his wife would have coped had he been the first to go.  The old man replies that she would have been completely devastated and likely unable to go on.  “Then you have done her a great service.” Frankel tells the man, “By outliving 

her, you have spared her the unbearable pain of losing you.”

Family and friends have expressed similar in reflecting on the passing my husband. I suspect I'm not the only one who feels guilt for living when a loved one has gone before us. Perhaps the answer is in Dr Frankl's inspiring words. Whilst we suffer perhaps we have spared our loved ones. Something to think about. 

Ulimate Meaning