And I worked like a man trying to earn it.
Emily used to tease me that I had two speeds.
All in, and asleep.
She wasn’t wrong.
I was the first one at the office most mornings.
The last one to leave most evenings.
If they asked me to make one hundred calls, I made one hundred and twenty.
If a client needed revisions at nine at night, I did them.
If a coworker dropped the ball, I picked it up.
Not because I was trying to be a hero.
Because I thought that was how you built a future.
And honestly, a big piece of that drive had nothing to do with me.
It was Emily.
It was Maddie and Claire.
My girls had this way of making even the ugliest day worth pushing through.
Claire had my dark hair and Emily’s eyes, serious and thoughtful, the kind of kid who asked questions that made you stop chewing.
