We had the pleasure of attending her retirement party last weekend. So many employees came up to me and said how much they were going to miss my mom... what an inspiration she had been to them... how much she cared about the employees... and what a great mentor and leader she was. Of course I was not surprised but it always nice to hear things from others about how wonderful your mom is.
So, on this day, two days before Mother's Day... I congratulate my mom for the tremendous accomplishments she has made over the past twenty-six years. What an amazing role model she has been for me. I know that while she enjoyed the challenges of her position, she is going to love being retired. I already have her lined up to help two different times this summer with the girls. And the lake house is almost done. In a few weeks, she'll be sitting on the deck with my dad, sipping some wine and looking out at the gorgeous view. She and my dad worked hard for that view and now she can sit there and not have to check her work email! Congratulations mom and happy Mother's Day to the most wonderful mom!
For posterity sake, here is my speech that I gave at her party.
So I have to go back about 26 years ago to start this speech.
It was dinnertime and my mom said “I need to talk to you and Ryan about something. I have decided to go back to work part time. And that means that some things may change a little around here.” We both stared at her and then looked at each other. This could only mean one thing – we would certainly have to do more chores!
We had always heard stories of our mom working in the ER at St. John’s in downtown Detroit or in the slightly less stressful office environment for Dr. Fortino. But she told us that she wasn’t going to be a nurse in an office again. She told us she would be a caseworker for Recovery Unlimited. We had no idea what that meant but in a small, young teenager way we were kinda/sorta proud of her (once we got passed having to do more work around the house).
Over the next few years, we visited her little basement office on West Saginaw Street and then at her new office in Okemos. We saw her start picking up more hours and taking on more responsibility. She started getting promoted. Clearly, in our minds, we were most proud of her accomplishment to properly use a map of Michigan (remember, this was pre-GPS).
When I was in college, I put in my own time at Recovery Unlimited. She trusted me greatly and assigned me to some incredibly challenging projects – filing, data entry, and the occasional mail duty.
But it was during that time in the office that I came to realize the respect that others had for my mom. And I started to look at her in a new light.
Bruno and I have two daughters who many of you met this afternoon. Grace is seven and the perfect age for asking her what she wants to be when she grows up. I have told her stories that when her grandma was younger, most women only had a few choices to pick from: nurse or teacher and maybe a nun if you were Catholic.
But because of all the women who have cleared the path before me and certainly before Grace, and for those who broke the preverabial glass ceilings, we can now tell Grace that she can be whatever she wants. And we can mean it.
So today, we celebrate my mom’s 26 years of commitment to a company – 26 years of believing in a company that struggled through some very challenging times, 26 years of taking the road less traveled and paving new paths and 26 years of making this company a better place than it was when she started as a caseworker.
Thank you for being a role model to me, to Grace and Abby, and to so many others within this company.
1 comment:
What a wonderful post of your Mom and her accomplishments! Truly an inspiration to us working mothers.
Cheers to her retirement and all her hard work. Wishing you and all the mothers in the family a very Happy Mother's Day!!
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