Climbing Up then Out

My mother once told me that she decided to go into business as her specialty because evidently in 1966 it was either nursing or if you were a rebel you went into business.

I actually wanted to be a doctor and after a devastating car accident in 2003 that killed my chances of completing medical school I pursued my career in the business sector.

But I think there was a semi psychological reason, my mother was a child that almost died. My grandmother once said she only made a baby book for my mother because she didn't think my mother would make it out of infancy, so why would you go into a profession that reminded you of your own mortality?

How ever, after my accident i really started to remember the specifics on what my mother did for a living and I really took alot of information and a few pages from her book.

Have you ever wondered what a female Jimmy Hoffa would look like? Well, in a way my mother was it.

Growing up my mom, maryellen worked for the local union in our town of Buffalo NY. She held that position for almost 20 years. She started off just a regular secretary and worked her way up to become head of the pension fund department.

But, what no one knew is that my mother was being ordered by high ranking Italian gangsters (she herself was an pure blood Italian) to transfer hundreds of thousands of dollars out of the pension fund into mysterious bank accounts that a federal investigation later revealed that the owners of the fund were robbing the pension fund.

This was a specialized union too, it was a hospital janitorial cleaning and cooking union. It wasn't associated with the teamsters or any other famous union.

My mother officially retired from her union on her 20th anniversary in 1995. But, the corruption of the owners still continued and greed is never good and it took till 1997 for the feds to hand down indictments. When the feds shut down the union my mother lost her pension and alot of people lost there jobs.

Also my mother was rewarded for her loyalty for all those years by not being called to testify. Even though she was no longer apart if the system and also since evidently my mother had done her job so well that one of the owners actually took a plea deal before the mention of bringing in my mother to testify could be mentioned by the prosecutors.

You might be thinking why would my mother willingly help corruption? The context is very complicated first, she remember she didn't find out about the pension fund robbery until she ran the department and second she was literally following orders; third my mother had 3 children to support and they given her blue cross blue shield health insurance. Remember in the 70-90s it was a huge perk if your employer offered healthcare yet alone the most expensive health insurance blue cross blue shield

Lastly, probably the most important thing is that for a period of 8 years my father was serving a prison sentence for a drunk driving accident, so when you add that into the mix it's like she had a 4th child to support instead if a husband.

My mother actually refused to tell me what she was making an hour when we would talk about her job, she did so till the day she passed. I finally had to go back and literally do the math myself and she was making between 19.75-25.00 in 1995. Oh did I mention this job was only part time? Yes part time.

Mom knows best was true growing up and afterbirth couldn't peruse my dream of medicine anymore she was literally the lady Jimmy Hoffa on barging rights. She really taught all about the working person's rights heck her career was centered in it.

But actually both my parents wanted me to be a pharmacist which I think is a very boring part of the medical profession. (No disrespect meant to actual Pharmacists i just wanted a part of medicine that's more hands on not just filling orders)

Naturally as does every mommas boy I didn't just look to my mother for career advice after a devastating accident but i have to give credit where its due, she was able to keep our family strong and together during arguably one of the worst periods in all of our lives (my fathers incarceration lasted from 1984-1992)

Her family didn't help her, my father's family didn't help her during that time so if it takes going up the latter in a sketchy organization to survive, I call that a huge win.

Also the second win in this story is again the insurance issue not just for the children but for herself. Remember before the ACA (OBAMACARE) was passed insurance companies use to be able to not issue coverage based on pre existing conditions. Now you might be thinking this might not be the same when employer issues insurance benefits you have to be covered for your condition's ok let's run with that I'm going to call that a win because its extremely rare in those days for a PPO plan that she had which is the the gold standard of insurance benefits just to cover high blood pressure and possibly eplisley without no questions asked.

So when I look at this period of time of our family I call it leading or maybe just old fashioned hard work does does really pay off.