She Led

My mother loved to dance. When I was in High School and College my parents used to go to Dinner Dances at the local Eagles Club. They would move around the dance floor with grace and elegance doing the Jitterbug, Waltz and other dances from their era. My mom also danced with others, her dance card was always full and I don’t think she ever turned anyone down. She could dance with anyone, even someone that absolutely had no right to be on the dance floor. She moved around the floor with ease and grace always enjoying every minute of it.


My mother was a born leader. She truly had a gift for leadership. She could get people to do things that they thought weren’t possible. She could assess any situation and come up with a plan, and a mighty good plan at that, with seemingly little effort.

My mom was a High School Graduate and started working for the State of Michigan as a switch board operator. Yes, the old style, plug the cord into a panel, switch board. When she retired after more than 30 years she was the District Manager responsible for 1/3 of the counties in the state. She had a few college classes under her belt, but never completed her Degree.

She served in the Eagles Organization on many levels and including serving on National Committees. She would have went farther except for the effects of Parkinson’s disease took its tool and limited her ability to more.

She moved into a nursing home, because of the Parkinson’s a couple of years ago and almost immediately started serving the Resident Council for that facility and on the State of Washington Council for Resident rights. Some of the Staff at the Nursing home called her Madame President.

This last Monday my mother passed away and even in her death she was a leader. In that last weeks of her life she made all the plans and arrangements and made sure everyone knew what her wishes were. She defied all the norms and died on her own terms. We were jokingly calling her Frank Sinatra because she did it her way.

Today she is doing the Jitterbug in Heaven, free to move without pain, her physical limitations no longer in the way.

It was funny to watch when my dad would dance with someone other than my mom. He always seemed stiff and awkward during those dances. Such a contrast to when he danced with my mom. You see, he really didn’t know how to dance. She Led!