What load are you carrying this week?

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Last week, Patricia A. Moen passed away. She was Melinda’s mother, my mother-in-law. At the funeral last Wednesday, I was one of the pallbearers who carried her to a lovely grave.  That was heavy.

Father’s Day couldn’t have come at a better time — our good family really did lighten the load. And yet, this morning I’m still carrying some of the heaviness.

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Born in 1929 into the name “Patricia Collins”, on St. Patrick’s Day, Pat Moen was a feisty Irish woman who turned heads in every room. One after another, her friends greeted Melinda and me at the visitation with the same phrase: she was the classiest lady. She was polite, positive and she knew how to make good friends.  As a bank teller, she caught Dick’s eye by painting her fingernails every day, smiling wide and donning the sharpest wardrobe in all of West Des Moines.  Years later, she raised the dress code at Josten’s in Owatonna, Minnesota, simply by her part-time presence in the accounting department.

When I look at my wife and her two sisters, I see three strong willed, hard working, generously positive daughters. Pat believed her daughters could embrace anything with the right attitude and persistence. That proved to be an important lesson, as they worked hard to help preserve her grace and dignity through a 10-year battle with Alzheimer’s.  The last two weeks were especially heavy.

As I watched my wife greet people with her freshly-painted fingernails, sharp attire and wide smile, I felt the grace and spirit of classy Pat Moen lighten our load.  Thank heavens.

Good leaders make a habit of finding goodness, even in life’s heaviest moments. And we rejoice in the spirit of the people who lighten our load.

Please share with me, who are the classy ladies we can help you celebrate?[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]