Real Life

So much is being said about the Wall Street/Main Street bail out, yet there is a road much traveled by the elderly citizen of this country: Retirement Road. The young people of this country have time to make up for the money they lost on Wall Street. The wealthy and the rich have funds set aside to protect themselves regardless of the situation in the financial markets. Even the mature person, who only has another ten to twenty years before retirement, may still have time, and hopefully some luck on their side. The people hurting the most are the people currently in retirement.

Last weekend I went out and bought myself a beach cruiser. I was influenced to make this purchase by my 32-year daughter. She suggested that I go green by riding to the store (two miles) and riding to the farmer’s market (five miles); both of which are up-hill. Never being one to shy away from a challenge, I purchased the bike.

“Physician, heal thyself.”

Those are words to live by according to Johnny Campbell better known the world over as “The Transition Man.”

Johnny travels the country speaking to groups of all sizes about how to deal with everything from corporate downsizing and business restructuring to personal issues such as disrupted careers, depleted savings, divorce, and an overall lack of motivation. Referring to himself as a “Personal Agent of Change,” Johnny helps people and businesses to succeed in these changing times.

Having cut his teeth on the realities of change during his 10-year career as an insurance claims adjuster, Johnny learned every one of the principles he teaches working with people one-on-one.

Born the in the United States of immigrant parents from Colombia, Patricia Alcivar and her three sisters did not begin life living the American dream. Though her trials were often horrific, Patricia was and is a fighter. Her story is not one of horror and pain, but of hope and promise. She lived through what many could never imagine yet too many must endure. In the true style of a Rocky story however, she is not a victim … She is the victor. And to the victorious go the spoils.

Last Thursday evening after working for the past twenty-four hours with three hours of sleep time, a staff member walked into my office and handed me a document with the name and address of a 95-year old woman. 'Mary' was in need of assistance in her home. She was frail, hadn’t eaten and wasn’t sure how she was going to make it through the evening. It was 5:30 pm, the end of my ‘official’ workday and I had to make a decision—whether to go out, meet this woman and help her; or go home.

When I arrived at Mary’s house, I found a four feet, five inch, 85-lb woman lying in her bed. The room was dark and there were piles and piles of stuff everywhere. You couldn’t see one inch of the floor. There wasn’t one area to sit—the situation was pretty dismal.

How do you interact with someone who is in a wheelchair or physically impaired? Do you feel fearful, uncomfortable, curious, distressed? Do you wonder if you should walk by or speak? Have you considered how your employees react to disabled customers or clients?

By the time you’re pregnant with your fifth child, you know what to expect. At least that’s what Phil and Andrea Rizzo thought. After nine months of an uneventful pregnancy, they checked into a hospital in Riverside, CA to induce labor. While preparing Andrea for the birth, the nurse noticed that the baby had flipped. They decided to wait instead of inducing labor that day. Though the Rizzos didn’t know it, this was a hidden blessing.

It was right around 2000 when I made the incredible discovery that deaf pilots had been flying since 1948. An idea occurred to me that I should not only find a flight school, but find one where I could work part-time in exchange for steep airplane rental discounts.

One thing led to another and I found myself a small airport in Michigan where I met two young men for an interview. I will call them Chris and Joe.

Chris seemed pleasant but Joe was a bit guarded. I could tell that Joe wasn’t all that enamored about hiring me. He didn’t seem to think I had what it took to be a line service specialist. Chris, on the other hand, was enthusiastically full of ideas on how they could provide me with a text-based pager that vibrated every time an airplane fuel order came through.

Facing her third caesarean delivery, as Sally Pierone was about to give birth to her youngest son, Dino, she was gripped by fear and nausea. Left alone while the nurse rushed off to get a couple of orderlies to hold her down, Sally offered up a simple, somewhat irreverent prayer, "If there's anything to this God business, I'd like it right now."

Lynda and her Partner Kendra

In 2001 Lynda King and her husband decided to surprise their daughter with a car for Christmas. Wanting to make the gift something special she called 10 car dealerships looking for a big bow.

“They told me they wished they had a company to refer me to,” recalls Lynda. “That’s when the idea struck.”

Lynda made the bow for her daughter’s gift then began designing another for production. Playing off of her own last name she named the bows the King Size Bows.