DALTON, Ga. — Sandy Babich says she knows it is becoming increasingly rare for someone to spend more than four decades at the same job, but the legal secretary who retired from McCamy, Phillips, Tuggle and Fordham LLP recently said she wouldn’t have done it any other way.

“I don’t know that I would be happy doing something else,” said Babich. “I mean, it’s got its ups and its downs, but I love it. You meet a lot of nice people, and hopefully you can help them out.”

Babich moved to Dalton in 1973 and began working for James T. Fordham soon after. This coming January would have marked her 45th year at the law firm, but now she’s enjoying spending time with family and never setting an alarm clock.

Originally from Illinois, Babich worked as a legal secretary right after high school, something she thought she would never do after taking, and not enjoying, a class on the law during her school days. When she and her husband moved to Dalton she went to work for Fordham and liked the law firm and the people there so much she never considered another job or career.

She said she will miss those people most of all.

“They’ve become pretty much like family to me. They’ve been there for me when I have needed them, for me and my family, and we’ve been through a lot together. I love them,” she said. “Mr. Fordham has been a good friend, as well as a good boss, he and his family.”

Fordham had similar praise for Babich.

“She is the greatest secretary a person could have, and I could not have had a career without her. I am going to miss her,” he said.

Babich recalled that on her first day she was set up at a desk in a hallway and given Dictaphone tapes to transcribe. Of course, technology was a lot different then.

“I started on a manual typewriter, and we just had electric typewriters when I started here. I guess I was one of the last ones here to accept technology, and I still have trouble with technology, but a lot has changed and you just have to adapt as you go. Everything is more complicated and more detailed, and you just flow with it through the years,” she said. “I was the last holdout, until I came in one day and there was a computer on my desk and I thought ‘Oh no.’ I think I was just intimidated, but I finally got used to it.”

Babich was in her office upstairs in the two-story Victorian-style home on West Crawford Street that houses the law firm on Oct. 17, 2008, when Lloyd Cantrell, who had been represented by attorneys at the firm during a family dispute, drove an SUV rigged with explosive natural gas cylinders into the structure. When the detonation system didn’t work, Cantrell threw one of the cylinders into the home. He was killed and four people were injured.

Babich said that day and the days that followed will always stick with her.

“I was upstairs when that happened, and I felt the building jerk when he rammed it, and then I heard the explosion. Several of us upstairs were able to get downstairs — I was afraid the stairs might be gone — but we got out OK,” she said.

She said the aftermath was stressful as the law firm temporarily relocated to City Hall, but she and everyone else were glad to be able to move back into their offices when the home was restored. Still, the stress lingered, she said.

“I think we were all kind of on edge for a while, like we would hear a siren and get that feeling,” Babich said.

Now that she is retired, Babich said she has many things she might want to try, but no particular plans beyond spending time with her children, grandchildren and a great-grandchild. She said she’s happy with the way she spent the past 45 years.

“You get to know your clients, and I think that’s important, too,” she said. “It’s been a rewarding job, and as far as I am concerned it is the best law firm in town. They’ve been good to me.”