December 06, 2014
Tonight while I was driving to a client's home to care for my four-legged clients...I found myself admiring all the homes that had decorated in their subdivision. It brought back fond childhood memories of Christmas for me. We lived in the southwest suburbs of Chicago. Back in the day, people really used to decorate their homes and yards with awe-inspriing decor. After dinner on Christmas Eve, my father would take the younger children for a ride to go drive through the highly decorated areas. Upon our return to the house, Santa would arrive shortly afterwards. Since our home was by far the largest with 13 kids...Christmas was always at our house. Seriously....none of the other family members had homes to fit us all. And so it was that we always had a very exciting Christmas celebration at our house. Our tree was always huge....it seemed like it was 10 feet tall but I don't know if that is accurate. I know the tree was so big, it had to be tied to the curtain rods for extra support.
Around 10 pm, one brother, one sister and I would head up to St. Michael's Church in Orland Park for midnight mass. We were in the choir and a pretty cool one at that. It was led by our wonderful choir director, Ken Steinbacher. We even made a Christmas record one year. I'm listening to the music right now as I type. Special memories indeed.
May your Christmas be Merry and Bright!
Tonight while I was driving to a client's home to care for my four-legged clients...I found myself admiring all the homes that had decorated in their subdivision. It brought back fond childhood memories of Christmas for me. We lived in the southwest suburbs of Chicago. Back in the day, people really used to decorate their homes and yards with awe-inspriing decor. After dinner on Christmas Eve, my father would take the younger children for a ride to go drive through the highly decorated areas. Upon our return to the house, Santa would arrive shortly afterwards. Since our home was by far the largest with 13 kids...Christmas was always at our house. Seriously....none of the other family members had homes to fit us all. And so it was that we always had a very exciting Christmas celebration at our house. Our tree was always huge....it seemed like it was 10 feet tall but I don't know if that is accurate. I know the tree was so big, it had to be tied to the curtain rods for extra support.
Around 10 pm, one brother, one sister and I would head up to St. Michael's Church in Orland Park for midnight mass. We were in the choir and a pretty cool one at that. It was led by our wonderful choir director, Ken Steinbacher. We even made a Christmas record one year. I'm listening to the music right now as I type. Special memories indeed.
May your Christmas be Merry and Bright!
A Single Ray of Hope celebrates 16 years of being in business in July 2022! How is this even possible? It is an amazing milestone for me and I am extremely proud and a veteran and woman-owned business.
Where did the idea come from to open a Concierge Service in Portage, Michigan? Well, myself and two dear friends would gather over frozen strawberry dacquiri's and making jewelry while brainstorming businesses to go into. My friends chose other routes and were equally as successful in their career paths, while I pursued opening A Single Ray of Hope's Personal Assistant & Concierge Service.
Still today, I love being of service to people. I am blessed to meet and work for a wide variety of clients. Individuals of all walks of life....some working professionals both with and without families, retired seniors and their adult children, various businesses and more. I love getting to know people and hearing about their fascinating lives. My reward is knowing that my service is giving them the ability to focus on what is most important to them. It's about the value of time and how they choose to spend it while handing of their TO DO List to a trusted business.
I started my business as a way of giving back to others. My youngest son has special needs and many family and friends helped guide us over the years, providing respite, words of encouragement, providing helpful information of where to go for services and assistance. The term...it takes a village is true. Others helped us and I wanted to help others in return.
Another reason for my business is I saw my mother who raised thirteen children end up struggling later in life with Alzheimers. I'd visit her in her nursing home and think...is this really how life should be for a women who worked so hard to put her children through catholic school by donating her artistic time & talents, staying up late at night just to have a little peace & quiet, stretching a dollar beyond belief, and raising a good family? Mom's put themselves last, we do it willingly but in the end, we are doing a dis-service to ourselves and our families. I thought life shouldn't have to be this hard. How about a providing a service so that people could enjoy life more instead of running in a hundred directions?
Many times, I don't see a lot of my clients....I'm in and out of their home during the day while they are at work. Shopping is done, errands done, dry cleaning is hanging in their closet, meals prepped or cooked, prescriptions picked up, library books returned, service people have been to the home such as plumbers, etc. My business gives my clients some breathing room and that is how life should be lived.
You get the picture. It's about work life balance and peace of mind....for both myself and my clients. Life is short....take time to smell the flowers.