As I told everyone already, my grandmother just celebrated her 80th birthday the day before mine. As my gift to her, I decided she'd much rather have my time then something to sit around her apartment collecting dust, so I told her I'd take her to dinner. Tonight was the birthday dinner night.
I made it over to her apartment around 5pm as we discussed. Of course, she was already all dolled up, had probably been ready to go since noon. When I got to her apartment, I went in and she offered me something to drink. We sat in the living room drinking a coke, talking, and going through a few old pictures before dinner. She was THRILLED to have my company. So thrilled in fact, that she ended up buying ME a gift - a beautiful necklace and earring set that I loved so much that I took off the jewelry I had on to wear hers instead. That's just like my grandmother. Always thinking of others.
We headed out to the restaurant around 6:30pm. During dinner, we were talking a bit about me and my career, and she started telling me a bit about hers - more than I'd ever realized. My grandmother is from a very small town in Alabama. She didn't exactly have the same opportunities that I had living in Atlanta, so my success in my career, although I'm very proud of my accomplishments, don't quite hold the same weight as her success in her younger years. Essentially, she is a very ambitious and strong woman, and made herself into a big fish in a little pond. In small town Alabama, she was the Vice President of an independent bank. Everyone knew and loved her. In the 1950s-1980s, a woman in banking outside of a clerk or teller was unusual, let alone a woman that was a VP. She said she was the only woman at the state banking conventions. Out of her small town, she got to know the governor, George Wallace, on a first name basis. She went to Washington DC to meet with congressman and senators. She was on the Housing Authority and State Marketing Committee. She was a very successful business woman. Out of determination, a self-made successful business woman from a tiny Alabama town.
As a girl growing up, I didn't realize the influence she had on me. But at the dinner table tonight, it clicked. I am a fortunate woman to have come from a family of strong women. Ambitious women. Smart women. Generous women. Loving women. I get my ambition, my drive to succeed, from the examples that were set for me. From the inspiration in the path that was laid before. And just as I was feeling that my career was trivial, that it was a substitute for my lack of family of my own, I realized tonight that it's not. My career is a continuation of the strength passed down. The courage, the intelligence, the hardwork and dedication. I come by my ambition honestly, continuing to lay the path of success and strength, in the hopes that I may pass on these family attributes to the next generation of leaders in my family. What better way could I honor my grandmother, even long after she's gone, then that?
