There for Thanksgivings

Today for our annual Thanksgiving post, I’m going to share something that has thrown a huge curveball into my life, my family’s life, and is exactly the reason I started this company.

I have a daughter, Mary. She turned 12 last week. I named her after my Grandma, Mary Ryan, whom I loved dearly. My Grandma was everything a grandma should be. She had candy in her pocket book, which today we’d call a purse. When she visited, she cleaned my room. She would tell my parents they were too strict. She was cuddly. She would call me long distance. When I learned I was having a daughter, of course we named her Mary Ryan. (BTW, I highly recommend finding out a baby’s gender in advance. It was the third best day of my life. The very best day was the day she was born. The second best day? All the people I love can just assume it was a day spent with them. :))

In 2005, the year Mary was born, I was a thirty-something partner at a law firm with a very successful career and building a life with my husband and college sweetheart, Ron. I thought about my own childhood, my grandmother who raised my amazing Dad, my Aunt Kathy, and my Aunt Nancy. I thought about my own mother, Georgia, who with my dad, John, raised Treb, Beth, and me. The overriding theme in all those childhoods was warm, loving and there. I wanted to be there, too.

Mary was born exactly one week before Thanksgiving 2005. We spent Thanksgiving Day at the lovely home of my Dad and his wife. I nursed Mary in the formal living room they never used, in sight of the most beautifully-set dining room and looked into her big blue eyes. On that same day, Mary’s godparents, Madrina and Padrino, were married in a beautiful ceremony on the Pacific Ocean. It was the most magical Thanksgiving of my life.

While I was pregnant, my neighbor had suggested a moms group organized by the local hospital. I showed up just a week after Thanksgiving. I thought for sure I would be out of my element. Instead, I found myself surrounded by women exactly like me. They were intelligent, professional, passionate, loving, inspirational women who dreaded going back to work, because look at those amazing babies.

One inspiration behind this company is well documented and comes from my time as an attorney and a part-time moderator for The WB television network. Another is less documented, and that was my need and desire to be there. Starting with that moms group, I found an under-served labor market of unbelievable people who want to do exciting, meaningful, and rent-paying work, but also want to put their families and lives before that work. They want to be there.

Fast forward to last spring, and Mary started feeling unwell. A few months later, she started middle school with great enthusiasm, following in the footsteps of her older cousins — shout out to Madeline, Jack, and Ben! — and their amazing middle school experiences like band, library, and D&D. Yet her health got to the point where she was missing a lot of school.

Naturally, my work took a back seat. We endured mind-numbing weeks of pain, calls to pick her up from school, calls to the school that she can’t make it, hospital stays, doctor visits, tests, poking, prodding, openings, and diagnostics. During those weeks, I couldn’t commit to anything at work. I bailed on an international site visit trip with coworkers Rich Weil and Mike Pinkerton. I skipped my regular meetings and delegated a lot. My job during those weeks was to be a parent for my child. It was heartbreaking. For my entire community of people with loved ones that are sick, I empathize. I can’t even imagine going through this with a “normal” job.

Mary with her cousins Jack, Madeline, and Ben

The good news is Mary’s doing much better now. We finally got a diagnosis. It’s not the best, but it’s also not the worst. We have a plan, stellar care, and eventually she is going to be fine. Her challenges aren’t over yet, but they’ve reminded me exactly why I started this company. I’m so thankful for the people who work here so I could physically and mentally be where I needed to be. Everyone has stepped up in a big way, and we’ve always done that for each other. Nothing has fallen apart (quite the opposite) and there has been so much support and pitching in from so many people. For anybody interested in working here, or for any of our clients, WOW, this is no longer about me. It is ModSquad and ModSquad has it.

I started this company as a way for all of us to be there. I started it as a “you first” proposition, appealing to super-smart people. It paid off for me in the 10 years of ModSquad by being able to work from home with my daughter and to put my family and friends first. There is no need to lean into anything, if you have surrounded yourself with everything. ModSquad is exactly what I wanted it to be.

Thank you to everybody I work with. Thank you. This year I plan on looking into Mary’s big blue eyes again and making this Thanksgiving as special as her first one. I am so thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Amy