Santa Rosa’s DeMeo Law, as all good things, must come to an end

The DeMeo law firm has reigned among Sonoma County’s most respected and effective since sons of immigrants Charles “Chop” DeMeo and J.N. “Nick” DeMeo went into practice together in 1939.

By now, three more generations of DeMeos and their partners have sustained and built upon Nick and Chop’s legacy. But as Geoffrey Chaucer wrote in 1374, all good things must come to an end.

Three months after the death of Jack DeMeo, remaining partners Emily DeMeo and Joshua West prepare to close the firm.

Emily, who is Jack’s granddaughter, Nick’s great-granddaughter and the daughter of judge and former DeMeo & DeMeo partner Brad DeMeo, said the family decision to terminate the practice was tough, “but it’s one we had to make.”

Emily will join the historic firm of Geary, Shea, O’Donnell, Grattan & Mitchell. West will move to Smith Dollar PC.

Feb. 1, the DeMeo firm will be no more. Jack might like for us to remember why it is that Chaucer said good things must end: “To make way for better things to happen because the best is yet to come.”

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SHE’S ALIVE and hugely thankful. Candice Day of Penngrove feels some gratitude even to the driver of the hit-and-run pickup or SUV that slammed into her Saturn convertible on Highway 101 in Santa Rosa on the Tuesday before Christmas.

“You are dead,” she told herself as the large vehicle bore down on her from behind after she’d stopped in a traffic jam. If that driver hadn’t slammed on the brakes and pulled right, Day suspects the impact would have been fatal.

“This person did a terrible thing in not helping me,” she said, “but the gift of being able to sit down with my family for Christmas was priceless.”

She hurts, and she misses the totaled convertible that she bought to celebrate surviving heart surgery 10 years ago and fitted with the plate ONLY2DY.

She dares to hope that the driver will come forward, or that a witness or someone anyone who knows the mystery driver will contact the CHP.

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IF MONEY’S INVOLVED, you can’t blame Petaluma’s Paul Herman for being as cautious as a bleeder hired to install concertina wire.

Herman is a retired optometrist who lost nearly all of his savings to a Ponzi scheme run by someone he’d trusted.

All he needed just before the holidays was for his drains to back up. He called the Santa Rosa office of Mr. Rooter.

The two-person crew told Herman the fix would cost about $1,000. “I can’t afford that,” he told the plumbers.

They seemed to go out of their way to assure him that if he approved the work, all would be well. Herman liked the Mr. Rooter guys.

“They were incredibly understanding, compassionate and professional,” he said.

Despite having been cheated before, he agreed to let them proceed with the job.

The plumbers finished, then approached Herman with what he expected would be a joy-crushing monster of a invoice. But it was a surprise: Across the country, the wrenchmen told Herman, Mr. Rooter was observing the holidays by forgiving the bills of certain customers. And he was one of them.

He nearly burst a tear duct.

“Sometimes at Christmas,” Herman said, “there are people who aren’t Scrooges.”

Chris Smith is at 707-521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.