Flying the American Flag

June 11, 2020

Proudly Flying American Flags	June 11, 2020
	With help from my oldest brother, we finally got our American flags flying proudly on John's house and on mine. You'll see we wore our masks and were properly social distancing at John's house.
John's house is ready for June 14 - Flag Day!  My dad's birthday was on 6/14.  He liked to joke that it was so nice for everyone to fly their flags on his birthday.
	My house!  I am so happy to fly this flag.  The other day while I was walking in my neighborhood, I was disappointed to see just a handful of homes flew flags.  I stopped to chat with one woman and her daughter who were sitting on thier porch.  I told her what I noticed about the lack of flags. I thanked her for displaying hers. I told them about my dad's b'day being on Flag Day.  I kid you not...the daugher said her dad's b'day was June 14th as well.  I left smiling thinking that my dad was with me on that walk that day. I'd love to see more homes display the American flag. A lot of good is happening these days after some dark times. Let's show our Ameri-CAN unity.

 

 

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.