Message from Fredrick (Fred) Niemann
A Freehold Township, Monmouth County, NJ Attorney
To Our Clients, Friends and Associates,
I hope everyone enjoys a very Merry Christmas and/or Happy Chanukah. To all a healthy and meaningful 2019.
It is our privilege at Hanlon, Niemann & Wright to be of service to you and our thousands of clients. We take our professional responsibility seriously and realize you have many choices when it comes to selecting an attorney and law firm. We thank you.
Last year I offered thoughts about a subject that caught my attention while holiday shopping. When I sent it out via email, I never expected the response it generated. So many of you responded with appreciation for the sentiments expressed and the timeliness of the message. I was and remain grateful that several of you took up my offer (you’ll read my offer later in this post) to talk about “things” in a judgment free and respectful setting. Because of your response, I decided to resend last year’s post with just a few edits and changes. I hope it is a blessing to you and yours this time of year.
Time of Joy and Sadness?
Indulge me a minute (or so) of your time to reflect upon a topic that caught my attention when driving by a church in the Town of Brielle (Monmouth County, NJ). The Church advertised a Christmas service for people struggling emotionally during the holidays. The service was entitled “Enduring a Blue Christmas”. It struck me because of the sensitivity of the Pastor recognizing that many people “suffer during the holidays”. For them, this is not a joyful time of year, rather it is a time of sadness, loneliness, depression and emptiness. Perhaps, I am speaking to you; the death of a beloved spouse, parent and/or close family member; the reality of knowing a loved one’s death is close at hand. Maybe it is serious financial challenges or regret(s) about choices made earlier in life, the consequences you better understand today. For some it is a diagnosis of a degenerative cognitive disease or a medical condition that makes each day a burden. Perhaps you’ve experienced a divorce you didn’t want to happen or a child with serious disabilities, be it emotional or physical.
Whatever the reason may be, you are struggling now and life is not joyful. Please know that I truly understand and feel your pain. Over my many years as an attorney, clients have blessed me with intimate details concerning their lives, their families, their successes and their regrets. I have listened intently and talked to them openly and respectfully about whatever it is they felt compelled to tell me; never in judgment, never in criticism, but always in gratitude that they feel “safe” and at ease in sharing their lives with me. To all of you, “thank you for enriching me and my life”. I assure you that I have taken your experiences and reflections to heart and having learned from you, I try to help others in their time of emotional crisis.
Everybody’s life is meaningful and important. Everybody deserves to be loved and respected. Our greatest and only true legacy upon death is how we are remembered by those we love and who loved us. The enduring success of our life will never be measured by how much money we have, our job title or our status in life. Rather our life will be measured by how we are remembered after our death. If someone carries our memory in their hearts with love, gladness, and fond memories, our lives were/are a success. Until our death, each of us can still make a difference in the life of someone else.
For those experiencing a “Blue Christmas” and a joyless New Year, whatever your faith, background, economic and/or social status, my hope is that you will feel God’s presence in your life and that you will be comforted and at peace now and in the coming year.
Emotional grief and grieving deprives every person of life’s meaning and it takes a long time to heal. Sadness and depression empties our souls of inner strength and balance. Please don’t give up. My wish for you is to endure this difficult time and once again find happiness in all the joys that can and do exist in our life.
If I can be of any help to you personally during this time, just call or email me now or whenever the time is right for you. I’ll meet with you in my office and/or we’ll talk over the phone. There is no charge, my time is complimentary. I am not just a lawyer; I am a counsellor.
To all our wonderful and inspiring clients Happy New Year
Sincerely,