How I Got Here

I’m introducing myself today in order to put some of my future personal posts in context.

My career was in PR, marketing, recruiting, and sales. In 2004, I started Storms Associates, a 1-person recruiting company. Creative name, don’t you think? Recruiting required lots of uninterrupted time on the phone.

In mid-2012, I was living near the NC coast and had happily relaxed into life and business as a single woman – single again, I should clarify. I’d become a part of the community there and had just started dating a great guy. My son and daughter-in-law had married 3 months earlier. The economy was finally showing signs of pulling itself out of the Great Recession that began in 2008.

Things were going well.

Then, at 8:30 PM, life as I knew it changed Thursday, June 21, 2012. My parents’ neighbor, Amy called me. Dad had had a massive stroke and was in the ER at Southeastern Regional Medical Center in Lumberton. Amy was with them in the ER. She had made the call because Mom, who had Alzheimer’s, couldn’t always remember how to use the phone.

June 21, 2012, was the night Lumberton NC became my residence, though I didn’t realize it at the time. I’d visited my parents many times since they moved there in 1995. I knew their neighbors and church friends, but I’d never lived there or stayed long.

Long story short, taking care of my then 81-year-old mother and 86-year-old father became my life. My career was over within a few months; for me it was impossible to pay attention to clients while caring for 2 parents with 2 entirely different types of dementia.

By the way, I’m an only child. My son, daughter-in-law, and grandson live in Texas. I have a large, loving extended family, some of whom live in nearby counties but most live at a distance. And that great guy I mentioned earlier – well, he’s still great and patiently in my life.

This is sometimes a stressful story, but it’s mostly happy. Mom and Dad get credit for that. They’ve always been kind, funny, frugal, and hard-working. And always filled with love and gratefulness.