Meet Tiffany

In 1977 my parents built their dream house. Just before I turned two years old we moved in. My mom bought a Tiffany light for this 1970s color-schemed house. In the kitchen for ten years hung this red, orange and marigold yellow light over the table that sat on a linoleum floor of similar colors surrounded by marigold yellow appliances. 

After we moved the decor changed to paisleys and blues and greens, with no place for Tiffany. She was hugged in multiple layers of bubble wrap and moved into the attic. Eventually she and the other contents of the house moved south in 1999. 

Sometime in the early 2000’s my mom came to visit me in my home in Wisconsin. We were in my kitchen surrounded by walls of an updated marigold yellow color and valances hung over the windows filled with crimsons, olive and subdued oranges and yellows. It was at that moment she thought about Tiffany and told me she would look great in this kitchen and she wanted me to have it. I have no recollection of how or when Tiffany wrapped in her bubble wrap blanket moved into my attic. There was no road trip between WI and FL, so she must have moved here in 2009 on the U-Haul truck I drove after my mom passed away. 

Nearly five years later she was moved into a new home and unwrapped to reveal numerous panels cracked and one missing. To put it frankly, Tiffany was in deep disrepair. I knew she had cracks, but had no idea the extreme until recently. To my surprise it didn’t take long to hear about Old Hickory Stained Glass in Onalaska, WI where a man named Bob had been creating and working with stained glass since 1976, around the time Tiffany was likely born. I never met Bob, he was a behind the scenes kind of guy, but my expectations and hope were high. A few months later I picked up Tiffany only to discover she was beautiful! Yesterday she was hung in my new kitchen of the same yellow walls and I am convinced this kitchen was built for her, more so than the one my mom remembered her in.

After 27 years in storage she hangs with dignity and grace, a centerpiece restored by an artist who was able to match her glass nearly perfectly simply because his years of experience rival her age. I was told he was amazed she was still around, these pieces were not built to last he said, he reinforced her and I believe was in awe of her as I was told if she begins to sag he will happily reinforce her again.

Royalty

I heard this endearing story from a teacher today:

Last Friday she subbed for one of my 10 year old son’s teachers and told my son to treat his mom like a queen this weekend, because it was Mother’s Day. His response, “My mom prefers to be treated like a Princess, she says queens are too old.”

Doing the Right Thing because it's The Right Thing TO Do

WARNING: This video will touch your heart.

(Just when I thought I wasn't going to need a tissue I got choked up.)

Remembering Linda Madigan

During my undergraduate program I took an Abnormal Psychology class (and of course self-diagnosed myself throughout the semester). I was required to complete 20 hours or so of volunteer hours. While in college I missed spending time with kids (“back home” I had babysat frequently and worked at a day camp summer after summer with three and four year olds). After looking down a list of possible agencies provided by my professor I decided on volunteering at a domestic violence shelter for two reasons; I could work with children and because I had a close relative who had been raped and subsequently volunteered at a rape crisis center. Twenty hours and four years later I received an award for being “Volunteer of the Year” and I moved to Wisconsin with the plan of finding a shelter there to continue my volunteering at.

Skip ahead 20 months. I was working a job, not to be confused with a career job. I loved everything about my new town except my job. It was clearly time to call that shelter I looked up 20 months prior. I walked through the door prepared to fill out a volunteer application only to have the volunteer coordinator encourage me, tell me to apply for the open children’s advocate position. I had no experience I told her. “You have lots of experience,” she insisted. I had three days to turn in my resume.

I was given an interview. I had nothing to lose. In mid August dressed for an interview and nervous as all get out I declared that if they thought I could do the job than I’d do it. I recall sweating my way through the interview and while walking out to my car taking a deep exhale. Linda Madigan, the director, was one of five people interviewing me.

Fast Forward ahead 5 years. Linda, who encouraged, supported and expressed her belief me was no longer there and neither was I.

Change the clock ahead to today. I attended Linda’s memorial today. On April 1^st she past away from cancer. Damn cancer.

Linda never introduced herself as the Director of New Horizons, she never once made staff believe she was better than any of us. Her support meant more than anyone’s to me at the agency, and it wasn’t because she was the director. It was mostly because she, too, had been the children’s advocate before, she knew what my job entailed and because she was the director who never gave herself a title in a group of people.

She had a heart full of passion and a green blazer hanging on the back of her office door. Linda was always dressed comfortably and her blazer hung there in the event the media wanted to talk with her. That green blazer dressed her up and was worn in every TV interview with Linda I ever saw.

Linda was a quiet, private person and after her retirement I only saw her once.  We shared a plane out of our town’s small airport. My family was on our way to a vacation and Linda was on her way to a Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans. This did not surprise me one bit. Of course Linda was volunteering with the American Red Cross, she was the epitome of activist and I wholeheartedly admired this in her. She once told me “DV (domestic violence) work gets in your blood.” A year after I left New Horizons to be a stay at home, full-time mother I completely understood what she meant. I will forever envision Linda Madigan on an airplane destined to help where people need her.

8 years later I continue to volunteer in my community.

RIP Linda Madigan, those, including myself, who were fortunate enough to see your passion to help those in need firsthand will never forget you.

To read more about Linda click here to read an article in the La Crosse Tribune published after her death.

April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month

My son won 2nd place in a t-shirt design contest for child abuse prevention.

You’re Never Too Busy

Busy week and busy day, but it only took 30 minutes to make a difference.

Rather than vent about my busy, full life I will only tell you about the difference I made tonight and challenge you to think about what you can do in 30 minutes or less to help others.

It only took me 30 minutes to donate about 50 leftover hotdogs and four boxes of Girl Scout cookies to my local Salvation Army shelter. They were appreciative to have tomorrow’s lunch and I was appreciative of having somewhere to bring them.

What will you do?

Slow Down and Enjoy Nature

I was getting frustrated as I was rushing to get to work yesterday. It had suddenly started snowing and the roads were slick. I was driving slow and thinking about how there was a good chance I was going to be late, which I absolutely hate. It wasn’t like I was going to be late to sit at a desk. I was on my way to talk to a class of 3-5 years about child abuse; safe vs. unsafe touches and how the blue ribbon serves as a reminder to grownups to “keep kids safe”.

The car in front of me was slowing down even more and that’s when I saw a white bird on the other side of the street in the middle of the lane. I was on a residential road about a mile and a half from my house.  My initial thought was that it was a goose which I knew made absolutely no sense, so I thought oh it must be a turkey that would make sense! Then I realized, no it wasn’t a turkey, only the head was white! It was a beautiful bald eagle that was in the road not injured as I originally thought but with a squirrel in its talons! It flew overhead to a field to eat. I pulled over and wished I had been able to take a picture but it was too far away at this point and I sat on the side of the road for a minute or two while I watched three crows fly down around it. Yeah right like a bald eagle with a seven foot wingspan is going to share with three cawing blackbirds! Not a chance, and it didn’t even flinch when they landed.

I continued on to work with a smile on my face and a reminder that in spite/despite the snow and ice I live in a beautiful part of the country.