Tonight's picture was taken in November of 2007. That Thanksgiving, we took Mattie to Boston to visit Peter's parents. In typical Mattie fashion, despite the cold, we were outside and interacting with nature. Mattie loved feeding the ducks and swans and you can see Mattie was beaming!
Quote of the day: Today's coronavirus update from Johns Hopkins.
- number of people diagnosed with the virus: 10,022,557
- number of people who died from the virus: 237,979
It was a BIG day in our home today! Peter started a new job. For a year now, Peter has been actively looking for a job. He worked in his prior job for 15 years, until his company merged with another larger company. So since November 1, 2019, Peter has been searching for his next opportunity. Of course, how one goes about finding a job has changed drastically in 15 years. Now everything is electronic and there is definitely a strategy about how to get noticed as a potential employee on-line. Peter certainly learned a lot in this past year, and as a by-product so have I. However, thanks to COVID, this was NOT a USUAL year. Which made job searching ten times harder.
One could say, what's the big deal? People are unemployed all the time, and have to find new jobs! This maybe true. However, the one caveat though is most people do not have a history of childhood cancer in their family, nor have they lost their own child to the disease. When Mattie was diagnosed with cancer, Peter was working! Thankfully, because his company's health insurance was crucial to providing for Mattie's treatment. Though Peter tried his best to maintain working by day and caring for Mattie in the hospital by night, it was challenging. Of course Peter's mind couldn't possibly be focused at work and even though colleagues may have seemed sympathetic, they did not quite understand what Peter was up against. In fact, in many ways, they viewed him as "broken" and "distracted." Not only did people internally feel that way about him, but externally they projected this onto Peter. Soon after Mattie died, Peter realized he had to plow passed the trauma and engage back into his work full-time. Trust me, that alone is an incredible feat. Most of Peter's colleagues thought he was going to fail, and the company thought Peter would crash, burn, and need to be let go.
THAT DIDN'T HAPPEN! It didn't happen because Peter was determined. Isn't this something? You lose a child to cancer, and there is no empathy or compassion. Instead, there is judgment, stigma, and people undermining you at every turn. As I remind Peter all the time, he survived Mattie's cancer treatment and death, so in all reality there is nothing he can't do! Yet walking away from a job Peter had for 15 years was difficult. A lot was wrapped up into that job, including Mattie, Mattie's diagnosis, and death. Perhaps it was also through Mattie's cancer journey, that Peter's mindset evolved! As Peter feels that the quality and character of those he works with is important, and he was determined to find a better fit for himself.
So to me, it takes guts to go back to work after Mattie died, and similarly it took guts to find a new job during COVID-19. Not just a job, but a job that Peter can grow, learn new skills, and advance his career and potential. Congratulations Peter on becoming the President and CEO of Thornberry, a LivTech company.
No comments:
Post a Comment