This week West Virginia prepared for the end of an era, as U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin gave his final speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate after having devoted his life to serving the state’s residents for more than 40 years.

Manchin, an independent in the truest sense of the word, has been a stalwart for the Mountain State, at all levels — the state House of Delegates, the state Senate, West Virginia’s secretary of state, our governor and, since 2010, a powerful voice for us in Washington, D.C. as one of our U.S. senators.

Filling the shoes of the late U.S. Sen. Robert C. Byrd might have been a daunting task for some, but Manchin did not hesitate to get to work for us.

He became, as his colleague and soon-to-be senior U.S. senator from West Virginia Shelley Moore Capito put it, “a relentless advocate for our state.”

And he did it with more loyalty to us than to the letter after his name — eventually deciding to switch from Democrat to Independent while also working against the increasing divisions he said “run pretty deep” in the Senate and across the country.

Through principled statesmanship, Manchin used his position to do what would be best for West Virginia and the country as a whole.

His efforts ranged from protecting coal miners’ pensions and healthcare benefits, ensuring doctors understood a patient’s previous opioid addiction history and funding the expansion of broadband access to helping design the $737 billion Inflation Reduction Act that was meant to lift everyone.

As his retirement approaches, West Virginians need not worry. Manchin is not done working. He plans to work with his daughter’s American Together, which focuses on recruiting political moderates for higher office to help heal the wounds currently open in our nation’s political realm.

“I rise with a full heart and overwhelming sense of gratitude,” Manchin said on the Senate floor Tuesday. “It’s been the honor of my life to represent my great state of West Virginia in this great country of ours.”

We, too, are grateful, sir. You have been a beacon of common sense during a time in which nonsense has taken over. Your efforts to bring people together, to always put West Virginia and the nation first, will not be soon forgotten.

We wish you well, senator, as you turn the page, and — though the words seem insufficient — we say “Thank you.”