2023

Charlie Scarlett and wife Lori “are loving life on Dunlap Lake in Edwardsville, Illinois – finally back to the water! We moved here in 2019 and not a minute too soon. COVID was kind of a non-issue for us as we owned an “essential” business that kept us working every day, and in the evenings we could raft with neighbors on the lake blissfully and naturally socially distanced on our boats. All in all, not too bad. We sold that business in 2021 and after two weeks of “retirement,” I went back to work as a business broker for the company that helped me sell mine. Buying and selling businesses during most of my career, business brokerage is a natural progression and a lot of fun. I sold seven businesses in the past year — everything from a physical therapy practice to a childcare center, to a medical equipment manufacturer to an assisted living facility. Lori is also a business broker (she got me into this) and she had a great year as well. The really nice part of this is we can work from wherever we have cell and internet service, and we can slow down if/when we want.

Five grandkids all joined us for Easter. It was fun seeing the older ones re-hide the Easter eggs so the younger ones could find more! I am also working with the National Park Service on making our place in Annapolis (Whitehall) a Chesapeake Gateway Site and part of the proposed Chesapeake National Recreational Area. Fortunately, this gets me back to Baltimore occasionally (not enough). Lori and I enjoyed a wonderful visit with Bert and Liz in Portland a few weeks ago. We have also enjoyed seeing Charles and Kathy Piven and Pete and Kathy Waxter fairly recently. If you’re ever near St Louis, please look us up. We’d love to see you!