L: visiting my mother at the sub-acute rehab facility in Doylestown, PA. R: My mother, home & healthy.
The job I lost gave me something a paycheck couldn’t.
One week before I was supposed to start a new SVP of CX role at a Big 6 agency, the offer was rescinded unjustifiably and unceremoniously. At the time, it felt like a lifeline had been pulled while I was trying to get out of the ocean and into a lifeboat. Now, I see it differently.
My mother fell a month later, so this job loss gave me the essential time needed to be my mother’s vocal care advocate. Too many loved ones in sub-acute care end up staying longer than needed, returning after setbacks, or never going home at all.
My mission was simple: keep her recovery on track, ease the load for my father, and bear the load when my siblings couldn’t get more time away from their jobs.
Her recovery was hard: 3.5 months in a sub-acute rehab facility 1.5 hrs from loved ones, followed by 2 additional weeks of hospital stays over 1.5 months due to life-threatening ailments.
I made 3-hour R/T several times a week to the rehab facility, bringing meals and laundry, getting Mom ready for PT, OT, or dialysis, ensuring her meds were dispensed on time, and doing everything I could to make sure she left healthier than she arrived. Then weekly 3-hr R/T to my parents’ home for 1.5 months to provide at-home care and support.
Working with 1st Street Partnerships during this time kept my skills sharp without the mountain of pressure that could have been my undoing in a high-demand Big 6 agency role, or other roles where I came in second, including Deputy Chief Officer of Engagement at a major NYC public agency, which required 4 days/week on-site.
I navigated this period while unemployed, taking classes to extend my benefits, interviewing, taking on project work, and pausing my business-building plans to be fully present.
Now, my mother has recovered beautifully, regaining her appetite for life both figuratively and literally. I’ve reduced my visits to 1-2x/month while I focus on landing another client, and doing the work I love with people who are smart, collaborative, and unafraid to create something new.
This season has reshaped what I want in my professional life. The work I take on next must be meaningful, challenging, and aligned with how I want to show up in life. For me, something new looks like project-based strategy work with founders, builders, and visionaries who care more about the quality, caliber, and results of my work than the hours I log in a timesheet.
Although the uncertainty of finding meaningful work and supporting myself financially has led to sleepless nights, the certainty of friends and family to have my back — and the certainty that my parents are happy and healthy together at home after 58 years of marriage — has been its own kind of comfort and relief.
I have faith I’ll look back on this time as the moment I stumbled and almost fell after life hit me with a few tough punches, but then found my footing, squared my shoulders, and threw a few solid punches back to win on my own terms.