“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the
life you have imagined.” ~Henry David Thoreau
I found this quote in the pretty little notebook my Mother
had left for us to find in her home after she passed. In it, she had inscribed
her own deeply personal dreams. Beautiful cursive stories that eventually came
to pass and others to inspire those she would leave behind in body--but never
in spirit.
One dream as a 12-year old girl, was of a “blue room” which would one-day
guide her to the home in Wood Dale where she raised us and lived for 29 years.
It was a glorious childhood filled with neighborhood kids playing running bases until the
streetlights came on, catching fireflies, sleeping out and riding bikes through the
woods. The stuff of dreams indeed.
It’s here that my Mother always told me I could be anything
I wanted to be. President, even. My Mother’s dreams didn’t end with her life.
They live on in me today. She inspired me so long ago, so resolutely and deeply,
that I chose to follow the direction our lives had taken together, just as she began to fade from this life.
After walking beside her during a chronic illness and
helping to manage her home and finances, I learned to bear the weight of Heath Care POA, of Executrix and preparing my Mother’s home for sale and eventually asset distribution. I didn’t realize until then that my entire life experience had prepared
me for these tasks. And was I relieved. It was no burden. Managing and settling
things for her seemed to be a natural evolution of my professional career as a
project manager. A joy even.
Beginning a Caring Transitions office in the Chicago
Northwest suburbs was funded in part from my Mother’s estate, but mostly by the
inspiration from her life-long unconditional support of other's dreams.
Thank you Hilda Radeck, for being the one who gave me life
and light that inspires it today.
I hope to make you forever proud, to help those who are
challenged to care for their homes and need a strong and reliable team to help
lift their burdens and ease their stresses. I hope to help families so they can
love and laugh and provide that listening ear to their elders instead of
worrying about the relatively insignificant things in life. Let me help care
for their things, lift them up and allow them the time to experience the joy I
received in the last two weeks I was blessed to spend with you.
Love and light to you Mom, and thank you for your support.
Mary Beth
#InspiredCaringTransitions