Giving Back...

As a little kid, Hannah used to say that she was going to be a famous fashion designer. She would have a top-floor penthouse in New York City, decorated with pure white rugs, white walls, all white furniture, and two white Persian cats.

And she would have a room for Ruth in the back.

That was a family joke, but kind of charming.

It was funny that she felt Ruth would need taking care of.

Of course, that’s never been the case. Ruth has always done well for herself. She lives an enviable life, although chasing young Wilder around the house as he tries to kill himself every five minutes is admittedly a mixed blessing.

I never thought we needed the help either. But when Carla and I ask ourselves if we would go back to work if money wasn’t an issue, my own answer surprised me.

“No, I guess not.”

As much as I love my job and the company I work for, the fact is, it’s not MY company, nor My goals. The reality of it is that I was selling my time. Two days a week of my life. It was much more for Carla. Being in healthcare meant that she was always overworked, underpaid, and underappreciated. I didn’t want her to have to go back.

Hannah has made that unnecessary.

It’s life changing to no longer feel any pressure to run or even limp along, to get back on the hamster wheel.

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Here’s her take on it. A little overly dramatic perhaps, but generally true.

Mike Swain

Beautiful

John Shortreed

No words, just tears of joy. Incredible!

Diane Mclaughlin

That's just one of the most beautiful things I ever read.

Brenda Flynn

So, so wonderful. Really and truly. If it hadn't been for my own family, I would not be supported enough to have gone into being an artist full-time. It makes one truly, truly grateful.

Marlena Primavera

That is truly awesome. How wonderful and deservedly so.

ENJOY EVERY MOMENT 

Vickie Hayes

That's awesome! Happy retirement, you two!

Cathy Jacob

Truly beautiful. How wonderful.

Taryn J Bailey

I’ve known Carla since 1964. So happy to see that she and Hugh can retire with little worries. Thank you Hannah, well done.

Marilyn Mason

What a sweet thing. What a special daughter. Enjoy your peace of mind.

Connie Swan Conrad

Amazing Congratulations on your retirement and your fabulous daughter!

Roberta Rinaldi

How wonderful that she's in a position to do that! I would say you are blessed, but I know how you feel about that, lol! Congratulations!

Lorna Kinard

That's awesome!

Carol Sveilich

What an exceptional daughter and human being. I wonder why she is that way? Oh yeah. She had you two for parents.

And now she is giving you a great gift of gratitude. Enjoy it. 

Judith Haller Newsome

Hannah, that is so sweet. 

Marty Lewis

Very amazingly awesome and magnificent! I had no idea she had attained such wealth!

What a wonderful confirmation of your entire family!

C Brooke Jones

That's so funny, my mother had everything white, all cars ,all rooms, practical everything she owned with the exception of her dog.

Carol Field

Only one word comes to mind : Love

James Foley

When my daughter lived in New York she had an apartment roommate who worked at one of the fashion houses. Made dresses that sold for three thousand dollars or more.

Barbie Quinn

Love this ! So happy for your family !

Jennifer Mauerman

This is so wonderful! I am very happy for you all! Thanks for some good news.

Tina Savage Ojakian

fabulous - for all of you

Daniel Maverick Falkoff

Good, enviable.

I should have had kids.

Kc Jeronimo

The love you make is equal to the love ....

Bronston Jones

Hannah rocks!

Lee Weaver

Speechless here, my friend. Holy Shit comes to mind. Maybe when we ride I'll be able to better express the "wow" of it all. Til then, I love you and miss you. Let's find a way...

Jenna Farr Ludwig

Very wonderful. Love is the answer. Coming 'round full circle. 

Rebecca Leonard

remarkable and filled with love

Lucille Messina

What an amazing daughter!

Happy Mother's Day!

As a little boy, I thought my mother was the most beautiful woman in the world. 

She looked like Grace Kelly to me, which made sense given the fact that dad looked a lot like Prince Rainier.

A housewife, as most mothers were in those days, mom reigned over four of us kids, a big house, her gardens, and the family dog. Always a dog at our place. Dad was especially crazy about them. We all were.

Heavily involved in charity work, she was also a “Choir Mom” during the ten years that I sang in the at St Paul’s Episcopal. It was the job of one or two moms to help the guys properly dress in our cassocks and cottas before each service. Not so easy getting a bunch of squirming little boys to look presentable, all at the same time. A bit like herding cats.

Mom worked dedicatedly every weekday morning on two things; drawing house plans on graph paper and studying the Wall Street Journal and similar stock market periodicals. She designed and built their last three houses and bought her own cars along the way with profits from her stock portfolio. Dad always made a great living as an attorney, that wasn’t the point. Mom wanted to do her own thing financially, and did.

An artist dressed like June Cleaver with her dress and pearls, mom was a master gardener with a very green thumb. On family vacations to Mexico, we all took art classes at the Instituto Allende in San Miguel.  She excelled in all of it: silver work, leather craft, watercolor, and sculpture. She continued with her leather craft for many years, stamping intricate patterns into wet leather belts and handbags that she hand cut and shaped from broad pieces of stiff tanned hide.

In later years, it was her photography that won her multiple awards.

She and dad were married for 59 years before he passed. After five years, Mom went on to a second marriage, calling me up one day to ask for my blessing to remarry when she was 86 “to an older man” she told me sheepishly.

Those two had a ball, four years of hand holding around the world. Thermal pools in Antarctica, a rubber raft to the Galapagos Islands…

She lived to be 93, leading by example with her active, literate, artistic, well-traveled, accomplished life.

Me? I thought she was beautiful.

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One of the last times I saw her, we went to dinner in the main dining room at her senior care facility. A nice place, men were required to wear a tie and jacket at dinner; the ladies wore dresses.

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 Buttons on Your Robe…

Let me help you with that, the buttons on your robe,

And guide you to the safety of a chair.

We’ll go down to the dining room and make a grand entrance,

All eyes on us as we move together in slow motion.

Your hand in mine; let me lead the way.

Sharing time with you is priceless; there is nothing I want more.

And if your unsure hand should stall and drop a bite of dinner in your lap,

You care, I know you care, but I don’t care at all.

I’ll just smile and love you.

Sixty years ago you taught me how to button my clothes.

You helped me into my chair.

If food fell from my dimpled hands, you just smiled and loved me.

And I felt safe with you.

All too soon my hands will shake like yours do now.

My girls can help me with the buttons on my robe.

I’ll think of you, and feel safe, going forward in slow motion,

Your hand in mine, showing me the way.

hmh