The Champions Who Walked Among Us – Article 6 – The Bumblebee

patgarcia ♦ June 21, 2012 ♦ 6 Comments

Looking out of her window, the streets were filled with children playing, at the age of seven that was the highest priority for most children. They were having fun, and her heart yearned to be among them. As she turned to look at the kitchen clock, the hand of the clock moved to quarter past four, and she knew she must run, if she wanted to reach the stores before they closed.  After all, the shopping had to be done, and her mother depended on her, there was no one else who could do it?

Dreams, dreams, dreams of helping others, of taking care of the weak, of ministering to people whose bodies were riddled with disease, helped her to keep going. The fact that this desire originated out of a family situation, which forced her to become an adult before her time, did not make her bitter or resign her to an impoverish life based on her environment.   No,__ while other girls were being daddy’s little girl, she joyfully became the little girl who was turned into a woman to become daddy’s nurse.

• How do you return to a child the childhood it has lost?
• How do you explain that a debilitating  sickness has infiltrated the family, and every one must bring forth a sacrifice?
• How do you comfort the little girl that desires to be like the other kids, but instead must take the world upon her shoulders?

Tired and weary, yet full of dreams, the girl looked towards the future and saw hope and a brighter day, and she dreamed by training her mind to see what others could not see.

Brought up in a home where the word, impossible, was forbidden, she lived with her mother who was the perfect example of a woman that demonstrated strength, a woman who worked long, hard hours from 5 AM in the morning until 9 PM at night.

A few years later, this girl, who had now evolved into a young woman, had completed her high school diploma. Inoculated with the belief she could do whatever she set  her mind to do, she was among the top graduates in her class.  “You can do it,” she could hear her mother say, “By golly, you can do it!” This was the song that had been etched into the deep recesses of her mind–– this song, challenged her intellectually, strengthened her belief, and reinforced her will that she could do whatever she wanted to do.

• Don’t limit yourself.  Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you.  What you believe, remember, you can achieve.[1]

Her heart’s desire was to enter into Rice Institute.  However, even in those days colleges and universities were expensive.  It was 1935, and her dream was deferred, but not forgotten.  So, she married the town’s celebrity and brought three children into the world.

• For every failure there is an alternative course of action. You just have to find it. When you come to a roadblock, take a detour.[2]

1945 and the Second World War had ended.  Four hundred and four thousand and eight hundred Americans had lost their lives on the European and Asian continents.  The man she had been married to for eleven years, the one whom she had given three children, the one whom she had prayed for late in the midnight hours came back, but not as her husband. He had already given his heart to someone else, before he left for the war.

• What do you when you are betrayed?
• Who do you run to seeking solace?
• Where do you find the courage to accept a change  you did not wish for, nor desired?

Alone with three children, she had to find work. The men were returning home, and women who had once been employed due to the shortage of men at home, found themselves unemployed.

The lady was used to hard work.  Had she not started working at the age of seven?  Had she not taken on responsibilities that would make most seven year olds today cringe under the heavy load?

Her first job began as a secretary in a Baptist church when she started medical school; the deferred dream had arisen, knocking on the door of her heart, pleading to get out. It was during this period of her life, with three children to raise and take care of, when she started a second job; she became a saleswoman.  Being proficient at sales, something clicked within her, and she realized the detour she had taken looked promising, and she decided to drop out of college and began a career in sales. Having already begun to collect wisdom from the experiences she had endured so far, experiences she had attained because of her belief that all things are possible for those who believe, she embarked farther on her journey, and she tested the waters as she investigated the path  she had seen at the roadblock.

Had her mother not proven women are strong, resilient and subject to excel in anything they set their minds to do? Had her mother not confirmed caring for others has its reward? Had she not shown honesty and integrity are virtues, which blend into success?

• If you think you can, you can. And if you think you can’t, you’re right.
• Every silver lining has a cloud.
• A goal is like strenuous exercise – it makes you stretch.[3]

See the woman, as she continues to walk forward.  See the mistakes she made through  trial and error.  Examine her as she marches through her first marriage, finding out at after the war,  a man who had no concept of faithfulness or loyalty had cheated her on. See the woman with three children, as she lay awake in the midnight hours questioning, pondering, and seeking a way through the jungle she had found, which men dominated.

This is a Man’s World, This is a Man’s World, but it wouldn’t be nothing without a woman or a girl, sang the soul singer, James Brown in 1966.[4]

Three years before Brown would record this song, the lady who was at the pinnacle called success, the lady who was laying the golden eggs behind the sales at World Gift Inc. was asked to take a demotion.  The Man’s World she dominated could and would not tolerate a woman being at its helm.  She resigned.

• A mediocre idea that generates enthusiasm will go further than a great idea that inspires no one.[5]

Standing at another roadblock, she saw the detour.  Would she take it?  Would she step out there at forty-nine years of age and take on new challenge?   Identifying her market, and developing marketing plans, the lady, who had laid golden eggs for others, invested all she had, and began to lay golden eggs for herself.

• People fall forward to success.[6]

So, it was for her.  She fell forward to success. “Every cloud has a silver lining.  Dare to risk public criticism, and for every failure, there is an alternative course of action. You just have to find it. When you come to a roadblock, take a detour,” she said.[7]

November 22, 2001, thirty-nine years after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the bumblebee, as she was sometime known, prepared to take her flight.  The temperature was mild in Dallas, Texas, around seventy-one degrees on her departure date.  That did not matter to the Bumblebee, though. She was ready to Walk On.  She had successfully pass through the embarrassment and feelings of rejection and failure in her first marriage; courageously rose up from the loss of her partner and second husband of one month by death; humbly forgiven those who tried to degrade her, and became the most influential woman in business in the twentieth century.

She Walked On! People, The Bumblebee Walked On! She stood up and spread her wings and began to fly into eternity.

Mary Kay Wagner Ash, The Bumblebee, the woman who said, Aerodynamically, the bumblebee shouldn’t be able to fly, but the bumblebee doesn’t know it so it goes on flying anyway,[8] Walked On!

Walk On! My sisters, all you who have a dream!

Walk On! From whatever nation you come from,

Walk On! Regardless of your native tongue,

Walk On! Though the color of your skin be different

Walk On! My Sisters, I say, Walk On![9] 

Ciao,

Pat Garcia