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GREENSBORO - I hate these goodbyes.

This afternoon, we'll gather in the newsroom for Lex Alexander, our veteran reporter, editor, blogger and resident curmudgeon. We'll tell dumb stories and deliver a mock front page that'll poke fun at everything Lex.

Oh, we'll laugh. And I bet Lex'll laugh, too. But it'll be a somber ceremony. After nearly 22 years at the News & Record, Lex is leaving. Like 40 other employees, he's accepted the tell-tale sign of tough times: the newspaper's voluntary buyout.

Another one. Gone.

Over the past 18 months, we've lost some good people at the News & Record because of the difficulties we and every other newspaper nationwide are facing.

It ain't just us. We're all hurting. Ask anyone, and they'll roll out a name of someone they know or love who has been walloped because of our economy. We at the News & Record know that pain firsthand.

We know these people we've lost not only for what they do but who they are. They bring with them their passions and quirky personal histories. We know them as mothers and fathers, lovers and hell-raisers, fans of bluegrass, muscle cars, Harleys and all things John Coltrane.

That brings me to Lex.

He married my good friend Ann Farmer. She ran our college newspaper at the University of South Carolina and loved nothing better than telling me how she and Lex met: covering a Ku Klux Klan rally in Greensboro.

Well, 19 years ago, when I felt this strong tug to leave behind my reporter's life in Boston and venture back South, the place of my roots, I called Ann.

That's how I met Lex. And since then, I've shared with Lex many things that had nothing to do with journalism - and everything to do with life.

Weddings. Softball games. Super Bowl parties. Backyard parties. The birth of our children. And the last conversation I had before I bolted out the door of the newsroom and drove a few hours south to see my dad struggling to stay alive.

My dad didn't make it. But my dad never forgot Lex, the writer of thank-you notes, the native of Charlotte, the husband of Ann, the father of two.

All those memories came back to me last week when I asked Lex about his leaving. He talked about the state of the industry, the need to move on. Then, I spotted a picture perched on the windowsill above his kitchen sink.

It's from May 1988. Lex in his sunglasses. Ann in her frizzy hair. They're peeking above a shrub, wearing their party faces at a wedding of two co-workers in the newsroom.

Happier times. For us and our profession.

People often ask me about the state of newspapering. I worry. But I have to believe that we'll survive. We're trained to find stories that matter. And that, I believe, is timeless - and necessary.

I'm reminded of that every time I have a conversation with Irwin Smallwood. He's a Greensboro native, who worked at the Greensboro Daily News - and later the News & Record - for 42 years.

During his tenure as managing editor, the News & Record was nominated for a Pulitzer twice.

He's now 82, a giant of North Carolina journalism who's no taller than a fire hydrant. He's a friend, a mentor, my partner in a church pew whose conversations often turn on journalism and life.

Like this one about editors: "They're people who come down out of the hills after the battle and shoot the wounded.''

Or this one about his late father, Wortham, who worked in shipping for Blue Bell, Greensboro's work clothes company: "He always told me what I did beat working for a living.''

Or this one about newspapering: "We extract the essence from the revealed. That's always stuck in my mind. The revealed is a play-by-play of a basketball game. The essence is how we came to that score.

"Somebody has to sort out all that stuff. And because of that, newspapers have to survive.''

May that always remain true.

Contact Jeri Rowe at 373-7374 or jeri.rowe@news-record.com