INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY

As our country’s attention was drawn to celebrate this day, I started to think about the women who have had influence on making me the person that I am. There are the teachers, from kindergarten through law school, who taught me to think, to seek knowledge, and to pursue my dreams. Teachers had the early responsibility, and in my case, the difficult assignment, of molding me into who I am. It is good to pause and remember them. But there are more who in particular are worthy of mention.

THE WOMEN OF MY FAMILY

Linda, my wife of over 50 years, has been the rock around which our family is centered. She put her personal aspirations on hold early in our life together to support us while I attended law school. She completed her deferred college education while raising our first born child. When our family grew, she quit her love of teaching science to students at St. Mary’s High School and devoted everything to nurturing our children, running the household, and teaching me what is was like to be a good parent.

My wife’s mother, Opal, lovingly raised four children, one grandchild, and one great-grandchild. She bravely fought cancer with grace and was a lifelong inspiration of family always coming foremost in her life. She too was married for over fifty years.

My Mother, Dorothy, bucked tradition in many ways. She owned her business as a beautician, ran a shop with as many as five employees at one time. She and Dad acquired homes and would work on fixing them up at night and on weekends, long before any reality television shows came into being. She taught me many lessons, including that rewards come hard earned in life. She too was married for over fifty years.

My daughter, Jennifer, inspires me as I watch her raise our grandson, work full time, run a household, and care for her spouse when he suffered severe injuries which kept him from working for close to a year. She in so many ways is like her mother in placing family over self with her unconditional love.

THE WOMEN OF OUR LAW FIRM

I am amazed at everyone of them. They work hard, raise their families, run their households, and feel the hurt that so many of our clients have endured. They are professionals, and are often unintentionally underappreciated for what they accomplish. Without their skill, loyalty and devotion, our firm’s successes for over thirty-six years would have been impossible. Our managing partner, Brianne, runs her family of five, runs our office, litigates at a highest degree of intensity and skill. She is fearless and tireless. I am privileged to be associated with every one of them, and am better for it.

These women are role models, their lives are worthy of emulation, and they deservedly have my admiration.