It is with a heavy heart that I let you all know we lost a beloved member of the Quacker Factory family this last week.  After a long and courageous battle with cancer, our beautiful Page Hammett has joined Jeanne & Lee Bice in Heaven.  Page was far too young to have left this Earth so soon.  I can’t even begin to tell you how many tears I have shed since hearing of Page’s passing last week.  But Page would NOT want us to stay sad – instead, she would want us to go out and celebrate her life – and to laugh and remember her for all the wonderful things she did for Quacker Factory over the years.

As most of you know, I have been writing a series of blogs this last half a year where I have – through a series of interviews – started to introduce you to all our team members at Quacker Factory.  The last person I interviewed was Page – so I think it’s only fitting as we remember her – that I share with you what she and I spoke about just before Christmas when I ‘interviewed’ her.  I know that she would love for you all to get to know just how special she was to our team.

When Page and I spoke, she told me that there were 4 things that were helping her with her battle – and with helping her get through each day with determination and purpose – and those were 1) her daughter, Lauren, 2) her Fiancé, Frank, 3) her family, and 4) her job.  While speaking to Page that afternoon, I could feel how important each of these 4 entities were to her – and how much each of those entities brought Page huge amounts of love.

I hope you enjoy getting to know Page – as much as we all loved working with her.

Patrick:  Page, first I must say that I think you have the BEST initials of anyone I know!

Page:  Thank you Patrick – I don’t think that anyone has ever complimented me on my name or my initials.  Leave it to you to be wacky enough to start an interview like that.  Who knew that the initials PH would catch your eye?  (PAUSE)…. Wait a minute you rascal – you and I have the same initials!!  Ha – you silly guy – you had me there for a minute.  Patrick Hoy – Page Hammett.  PH & PH.  Thanks for the laugh – I needed one today – this medicine has been kicking my butt!  Leave it to you to make me laugh.  Okay Hoy Boy – let’s get this interview started – you now have my full attention!

Patrick:  You’re one of the few who get my sense of humor!  Okay, my first question is, what do you do for Quacker Factory?

Page:  It might be better to ask what I DON’T do?!  I am the Office Manager, Tim Bice’s personal assistant/right-hand girl.  I also do the accounting, bookkeeping and office management.  In addition, I am the first point of contact for customer service issues.  I also provide creative input for our website – and for our marketing materials – such as the fun emails we send to our wonderful viewers.

Patrick:  It sounds like you have your hands in lots of different pies!  But that wasn’t always the case.  Tell us what you did when you initially started with us – and how your role and responsibilities grew so much.

Page:  You’re right about that Patrick, my role has definitely evolved through the years!  I first started working for Quacker Factory in 2005.  I was brought in to specifically do Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable for the company.  In fact, I didn’t work for the company fulltime at that point.  Rather, I had my own business where I provided Accounting & Bookkeeping financial services for several companies – and I worked primarily out of my home.

Patrick:  I understand that you actually didn’t even meet Jeanne until about a year after you started handling our Accounting part-time.

Page:  That’s very true – since I worked mostly from my own home, there had never been a reason or circumstance for me to be in the same room as Jeanne.  But after about a year of working for Tim Bice, he invited me to a party at his house.  The party was a house party when Tim was rolling out his new band – and they were going to be doing a poolside performance.  I was excited to be invited – and it was there that I met Jeanne for the first time.

Patrick:  Jeanne definitely had a way of ‘sensing’ people when she first met them.  Do you remember what she first said to you??

Page:  I remember it VERY well – she said, “Page, you’re cute as a button!  I want you to come to my house next week – and let’s see if we have any other work for you!”

Patrick:  Oh my gosh – that sounds just like Jeanne!  So, did you go over the next week??

Page:  Absolutely!  I went over and sat down with Jeanne and it went really well.  Over the course of the next year, Jeanne kept giving me, slowly, more and more work – here and there.  I still had my other Accounting/Bookkeeping clients – but it was nice to have a bit of change in my work-routine.  About a year later, Jeanne surprised me and asked me to give up my other clients – and to come work with her – and our amazing team – full time.  The full-time work was at her house – and the hours were GREAT –  8am to 4pm!  How in the world could I refuse?!  It was the BEST decision I’ve ever made!

Patrick:  Tell us about working at Jeanne’s house.

Page:  I LOVED working in her beautiful house!  I called it The Chocolate Factory because it was as magical as Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory.  She had 20 or 30 of those BIG apothecary glass jars – all in different colors – and they were ALWAYS filled with candy – it was like going to the biggest candy store in the entire world – and I got to go there every single day – it was unbelievable!!!  And guess what Patrick?!  One of the first jobs Jeanne had me do was to order enough candy to fill those massive jars.  I was so nervous – I won’t even begin to tell you how much money I spent ordering all of that candy – but we were able to snack for months and months and months!!!  Let me tell you – those candy jars were NEVER empty when I was around!

Patrick:  I love this picture of you at Jeanne’s house during the Christmas period.  She certainly loved decorating every single inch of her house!

Page:  You are SO right about that Patrick!  She loved decorating – and she kept Tiago busy when it came time to redo any of the seasonal decorating.  I think you can tell from the picture above why I thought her house was like Willy Wonka’s magical factory – only this was the magical Quacker Factory!

Patrick:  What other jobs did you do for Jeanne?

Page:  I did TONS of basket making!  Jeanne loved sending and surprising people with GIGANTIC gift baskets – the bigger the better.  We would put in copies of her books, duck whistles, handwritten cards – recipes, etc.  I remember doing one for Ellen DeGeneres because Ellen talked about Quacker Factory – so Jeanne wanted to show Ellen how grateful she was.  I also did one for Joan Rivers.  I also did party/event planning for Jeanne.  She loved to have her girlfriends over for big elaborate lunches.  So, I would plan and organize that – from sending the invitations out – to helping order new place settings!

Patrick:  Here’s a picture of Jeanne with the girls – and you! – at one of those luncheons you organized at her beautiful house:

Patrick:  Okay – I want to go back to something you just said.  You said that you would order new place settings?!  I would have thought that Jeanne had enough place settings for a party of 10!!

Page:  Oh Lordy Patrick – you don’t know the half of it!  I’m going to share some secrets with you now.  This first thing isn’t too much of a secret – but Jeanne was a shop-a-holic!  She LOVED to shop!!  Once I was helping her plan a Christmas dinner – and there were 20 people coming over.  Jeanne had me order 25 place settings.  And then a week later she saw a different Christmas design on a place setting that she thought was cuter – so she had me order TWENTY-FIVE of that place setting as well!!  She once said to me: “Page, I believe that she who dies with the most dishes, is the winner!”  Well, if that’s the winning measurement – then Jeanne was definitely the winner!!  When she died, she had at least 25 to 30 SETS of themed place settings – with an average of 12 pieces in each setting!  She had seashells, flamingo sets, crab sets, Valentine’s, Easter, Christmas, Sail Boats/Fish, Lobster Fests – and that’s only the beginning!  I told you – she was a shop-a-holic!!!

Patrick:  Oh my gosh – that is hysterical!  I understand that you also helped Jeanne with all of the customer service letters.

Page:  That’s right.  Jeanne received so much fan mail every day – so she had me help her with that – which was great fun!  It was such a joy to read letters from our beautiful viewers saying how much Jeanne and Quacker Factory had changed their lives.  They loved writing and telling her how they had used her decorating tips to brighten up their own homes – which Jeanne loved.

Patrick:  And to this day you still help with the customer emails.

Page:  I do.  As you know, I was diagnosed with cancer in 2014.  A lot of our customers have written to us over the years to share their own stories of illness – and now I’m having to deal with my own illness.  I now look at all of those letters from our wonderful viewers who have shared THEIR stories – and in all honestly, those stories have given ME so much strength.  The treatments have been rough – but you know what Patrick, I’m a strong woman like Jeanne was – and I’ve got some pretty amazing people helping me fight this battle.

Patrick:  Tell us about those people, if you don’t mind.

Page:  Well, I recently became engaged to Frank – who you met Patrick when we all had our team meeting in the Bahamas.  He proposed to me on my birthday – October 11th.  It was one of the happiest days of my life – and I am so grateful he is helping me through this.

Patrick:  I LOVE this picture of you and Frank when we were in the Bahamas – you can tell that the two of you definitely have a GREAT sense of humor!!

Page:  I also have my amazing family to help me through all of this.  They mean the world to me.

Page:  And of course I have my beautiful daughter, Lauren.  She is 19 and in her 2nd year at Temple University in Philadelphia.  It’s so wonderful that she ended up from Florida to Philly near where most of our Quacker Factory team is based.  She’s always been artsy – and she’s an incredible pianist – and has been for 13 years.  Lauren has lived a Vegan lifestyle since she was 13.  I have NO idea where she got that from – it certainly wasn’t me – because as you know I love to eat the same foods as Jeanne and the rest of our team – so that was definitely Lauren’s choice – and you know what Patrick, I am SO proud of her – and I love her so much!!

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And we’re so proud of Page and the strong fight she gave these last few years.  Before Page joined Jeanne & Lee in Heaven, she wanted us to share some of her favorite pictures with you.  I do hope you enjoyed getting to know Page as much as we enjoyed working with her all of these years.

Here’s a picture of Page working with Tim on the bookkeeping.

I LOVE this picture of Page and Angel on the set of QVC.

Here’s a wonderful picture of Page with Kristy, Karin Bice & Tiago’s wife, Mariana

I think you can tell how much fun we all had in the Bahamas with Page this last year!

And I think this has to be one of my favorite pictures of Page – she loved this Quacker Factory top – and just look at how wonderful she made it look!!!

We love and miss you Page!!!!!!!!