So, when I was on maternity leave with our first baby, wee Oliver, I was … well, I was not at my very tip-top best. I was overwhelmed, exhausted, stunned and tired. I was not a shining beacon of motherhood, and I was very grateful to have a job where I could just — leave. I didn’t come back for 13 weeks after Oliver was born, and the League team was just heroic in my absence.

At one point, about 7 weeks in, I got an increasingly desperate call on my home cell phone from our then-current website provider. They said, something to the effect of, ‘we are going out of business, we will shut down your website in approximately two weeks, you must respond.’ Apparently, they had been trying to reach me since, well, since I left.

I had no idea what to do, and me sitting down and crying with Oliver, while quietly soothing in some ways, presented very few options. We had a vendor who worked on our computer systems, both in our offices and creating applications for us to use online, who I had grown to really like. Scott Williams, my main contact there, was hilarious, smart and usually right on deadline. I relied on him, and in my hour of need (my flair for the drama is always increased during stressful times), I called him.

I laid my problem before him, being clear the SHORT timeframe we had to completely takeover the website (the scope of which I barely understood myself) and in my mind, he said, “No problem. We’ve got this.” I flailed a bit more, trying to emphasize: Are you SURE? Will you HELP? and he said, smoothly, calmly and with great humor: Yes, I’m sure, and yes, I will help.

So, he did. He did! With very little input from me (just a few more flailing phone calls) and very little demands, he singlehandedly (or with a team, I’m not clear …) saved the League’s website.

When, a year or so later, he said he wanted to join the League staff, I was ready, willing and eager to hire him — and he’s outlasted me there! He’s a great asset, and I miss working with him. I think often of that panicked day, and his kind and calm response. Scott is a great person; thank you for saving the site, and my maternity leave.