This is the second saddest day of my life - second only to the day my mother died of brain cancer.

As I watch colleagues packing boxes with files, photos and tchotchkes adorning desks (for my part, an unopened bottle of Park Meadows Ale to commemorate the "retail resort's" opening), I think back to the day I got here in October 1999.

I was recruited by Rocky honchos John Temple and Deb Goeken to take over the job left vacant when Norm Clarke moved to become gossip guru in Las Vegas. I was leaving behind a six-year stint as business reporter at The Denver Post. I felt certain that a bolt of lightning would strike me dead as I entered the doors of the old Rocky. Didn't happen.

Nine years and countless columns later, we're done - done with the best job I've ever had. Man, what a sweet ride. Things I'll never forget, for better or worse:

* Covering the 2002 Winter Olympics in Utah were the worst 18 days of my life. My son was home sick with mononucleosis; it was freezing. Have you ever walked a Salt Lake City block? The only good to come out of it was making lifelong friends with my colleague Lynn Bartels, who found us a pad where we could room together.

* Covering the NBA All-Star game. What's the deal with this winter work? Again, standing on the edges of red, blue and cement carpets waiting for rap stars and NBA players to throw us shivering journalists a bone with a couple of quotes. Thank you very little, Michael Jordan, for dissing all of us who waited nearly three hours to grab a quote from you.

* Covering the Democratic National Convention. What a grueling, yet gratifying, assignment. I hit the ground at 10 a.m. and saw my pillow again about 2 a.m. It was the biggest congregation of real stars ever to gather in Denver. What a rush.

* Breast cancer - knocked me down, not out. I kept going, buoyed by support from you, dear readers. Without you, I wouldn't have had such an uneventful journey through it all.

* Weddings - the fairyland wedding of Sharon Magness to Ernie Blake at their ranch in Silverthorne. Probably the most lavish event I have ever covered. The wedding of Dan Hinote to Amy McCarthy with its '50s- themed costumes and rock 'n' roll at The Keystone Ranch. Hockey players in garb that dates to before they were born.

* Any day I beat The Post was a good day. Journalists live for scoops, and I was lucky enough or connected enough to land quite a few: Where presidential hopeful Barack Obama was staying while in Denver during the DNC, John Elway's engagement to Paige Green, Britney Spears sightings in Colorado, and on and on.

Mostly, I will miss my colleagues and their unselfishness in helping me to succeed. A few come to mind: Mark Brown, Kevin "Moose" Huhn, Sam Adams, John Lehn dorff, Lori Midson, Marty Meitus, Kevin Flynn, Kevin Vaughan, Rob Reuteman, John Rebchook, Lynn Bartels, M.E. Sprengelmeyer, Lesley Kennedy, Jeff Kass along with editors Tonia Twichell, Joe Rassenfoss, Jim Trotter, Goeken and Temple (I'll miss you most, scarecrow . . . I know, corny).

EAVESDROPPING on a Rocky colleague: "My mom always wanted me to go into construction."

Penny Parker's column used to appear Tuesday through Saturday. This is her final column for the Rocky Mountain News.