I am not retiring. I am definitely not done yet. But, it is time to move on. I need a new challenge.

Life moves on and there is something very exciting about the newness of that.

There was a time when people got into their 60’s, retired, and played golf, or went fishing for several years and died. But now that we are living longer and healthier, people need more. You can’t just golf for 30 or 40 years. And you probably didn’t save enough money to live several more decades.

For some time, I have been pulling together a multi media business to bring people like me together to find “My Next Big Thing”, a fulfilling new endeavor that allows time for many pursuits, that satisfies our passion and brings in added income.

There are many people in this boomer space, so for now I can only say I’m excited about launching this business later this year.

That said, this has been my home for most of my adult life. I came to this station at the age of 28, having worked as a producer of news and public affairs programs at WBZ and WKBG before that.

My goal was to be a reporter – the best I could be. Anchoring was not on my radar screen, and when I first was asked to anchor the midday news, I was not happy. It would take me off the street for too long every day. But it worked out. I got to cover a story every afternoon for the six.

And then we did all those other shows. And we took the news department on the road when it made sense, held town meetings in New Hampshire. And we CREATED television. You name it. We tried it. It was always new.

Personally, I had to learn to live in a very public arena. That surprised me and I recoiled. But I have come to be grateful to so many people I don’t know who have been there for me….when my mom died, when I was very sick, when I married, when I had a baby.

My mother died of breast cancer the year before I finally became pregnant. And I missed her a lot. And one day, when I was about 8 months along, I opened a box from a viewer…it was a baby doll, created from all things needed for a new baby, diapers, pins, bottle, tee shirt…very clever….and a note: I know if your mother were alive she would tell you these things…and the lady went on to say all things mothering…It was ll:45…just after the news… I cried my eyes out so grateful to this woman I would never meet.

My angst about being a public person disappeared that night…and I never again saw a mass of people…only individuals.

When Lindsay was born, our news director Jim Thistle led the 6 o’clock with the news of her birth; I asked him if nothing more important had gone on that day? He said, “Not to our viewers.”

And I began to realize what Jim already knew, the people of channel five and the people of our community are one. It is a connection we treasure to this day.

I like to think we see our viewers as fellow citizens, not customers. Their needs, joys, fears, curiosity are ours to meet.

Trust has never been just a slogan at Channel five. We have earned people’s trust through years of honesty and hard work and respect.

We come together in times of crisis and joy. Information controls fear.

Even during 911, when the sky literally seemed to be falling, we did what we do; worked hard to learn the facts and share them with our neighbors. And as awful as it all was, we brought perspective and some sense of calm to the moment – a moment that changed our lives forever.

Celebrating joy is all the more wonderful when we share it. The Red Sox, the Red Sox, the Red Sox. The nightly build up to September, the Yankees, the pennant, the World Series. I walked down the streets of Boston that night with hundreds of thousands of our fellow fans…another moment of life….an exhilarating time that will live with us forever.

I think of all the history we have shared with our fellow citizens by broadcasting events that marked our time.

Rose Kennedy’s funeral for example. We set up a desk of sorts across from the church, invited Doris Goodwin, the noted historian and channel five analyst, Clark Booth, channel fives resident historian to work with Chet and me and our whole team to cover not just a funeral but also the history of Massachusetts famous family.

That spontaneous wall to wall coverage, 4,6 8 hours, began with the Queen’s Visit and the Tall Ships in l976.

For me, bringing people together for the big stories is exhilarating….. and there have been so many over the last 35 years.

The dedication of the Kennedy library when Jacqueline Kennedy turned up her nose at President Carter as he offered her a kiss on the cheek.

The presidential campaigns of local sons, Dukakis and Kerry…each losing to a Bush.

The 78 Blizzard – a natural disaster that brought out the best in human nature.

The challenger explosion that took a native daughter.

The Pops on the esplanade when the curmudgeon Arthur Fiedler showed up seconds before air time and just grunted. Would he talk when the cameras were on?

Liberty’s birthday party in New York Harbor. Nelson Mandela, the Pope, Cardinal Law in Rome, busing, the Great Chelsea fire, The Hotel Lenox, the Boston Marathon.

So many stories, so much life.

Between those giant moments of life, is everyday, the everyday of everyone’s life that in the aggregate defines us. The every day when, as Clark Booth put it “we dance to the music of time”, when WE “decide what counts most and DECLARE what it means”.

His call to humility is palpable.

In l990, I was asked to give the commencement address at my alma mater, UNH. I dreaded it. Like you I had listened to a hundred boring speeches and I didn’t want to be l0l.

So I set out to learn who these soon to be graduates were. I visited the school several times, asked my sorority sisters to set up meetings with fellow students, walked the campus. And what I learned was they, were just like we were 25 years earlier…harboring the same hopes and fears.

I mention that because I see that continuum in the stories we cover over these 3 plus decades.

For example, when we began here in l972, the news was Vietnam. We were fighting a war we did not understand. Now we send our children to fight a war we don’t understand.

How lucky are we to be in this business. We journalists have an extraordinary window on the world. Our profession offers opportunities to participate in life as does no other profession can.… to meet people, to probe their thoughts, insights, and motives. It is a privilege.

So, as I prepare to leave you, I am filled with appreciation for the life this job, this profession, this television station, my colleagues, friends and neighbors have allowed me.

I am grateful to have worked and continue to work with as good a team of professional and caring people as there is in this profession or any other.

And of course we reporters and photographers do not work alone. For me one of the best aspects of this business is the team…the whole only as good as the strength of its parts. The reporter, the photographer, the editor, the technical crew …..our technical staff has worked miracles more than once. Our producers who toil through very long days. Our sales department, traffic, promotion, Erin Duggan the best media relations person we ever had, John and Linda in the cafeteria, Maurice in the mailroom. Mike Fahey who fixes anything.. Our assistants and dear wonderful Mini. And of course our management who deal with things I wouldn’t want to think about.

I think the best promotional campaign we ever ran was Five is Family. These three words speak to the essence of who we were and are.

Like all families, we have don’t always agree on everything…and in a newsroom that is not only healthy, but critical to our mission.….that being to provide the best information to our family of viewers, so they might make intelligent decisions about their own lives and share those moments of life with one another.

So the day has come for me to leave home. I do so with tears and with hope for tomorrow and with excitement about what is to come,

I leave with all the passion and energy for life I had when I arrived,

I leave with appreciation for my good fortune to have been part of WCVB, Boston and New England.

Wherever life takes me, I know I will always feel part of this family and our community.

Take care of yourselves, each other, and our fellow citizens.

Thank you. And may God Bless.

Natalie Jacobson
July 10, 2007