IWD Shout Out

I half thought to write this a few days ago and then realized, this morning, that it was International Women’s Day and now can think of no better time.

Over the last several days, the Northeast has been blanketed with snow and dangerous conditions. But my mother, currently the VP of a hospital in Philadelphia, did what she has done my entire life. Thinking of every patient under her care, she stayed overnight, for several nights, near as she could to the people she had been charged with overseeing. She did so without complaint. Without a thought of herself. Or her own comforts of home. I spoke with her one night at roughly 1am only because she happened to be awake and had to be back up at 4am. When I was a kid, I won’t deny there were times she worked so many hours that I sometimes begrudged the time she wasn’t home. But now that I am an adult, now that I have a job I also care about doing well, a job that demands I also care about other people, there’s a reason I don’t complain about the late hours. Ever. Because my mother is awesome.