I’d like to share some articles with you that have caught my attention lately. You’ll find them after the photo (below).
First, I’d like to give a shout-out to my mom, who passed away 20 years ago this week. She was the best mom anyone could ask for.
To participate in the civil rights movement and help the black community, my mom started her career as a 5th grade teacher at Chicago’s Jenner Elementary School, which served the Cabrini-Green Housing Projects. She became a full-time mom after my brother and I were born. When I was in elementary school, she earned her master’s degree in special education. Just as she was ready to return to teaching, her mom got lung cancer and moved in with us until she passed. My mom immediately quit
smoking and became a health & fitness freak. She was 35.
Around the time I started high school, my mom made a career pivot. Because she loved shopping for clothes and putting outfits together and because her friends all turned to her for clothing advice, she took a job at a pricey clothing boutique where she could spend her days helping others to look their best. She built an amazing network of wealthy clients (including Michael Jordan's wife) and eventually got hired by Saks Fifth Avenue to run their personal shopping program in
suburban Chicago.
Years later, when she turned 57, her neck hurt and she was struggling to carry her briefcase. Like a bomb that dropped out of nowhere, MRIs showed that she had lung cancer that had spread through her spine and into her brain. Seven months later, just 8 weeks after her 58th birthday, she passed. I miss her a ton and am still trying to process everything that happened that year.
