Day 16 - A Picture of Someone Who Inspires You

That's my mom. I picked this picture of her because I think it's so cute. I have
 no idea when it was taken but if I had to guess it's pre-wife, pre-mommy days.

My Mom was the hardest working person I've ever met. She was a janitor at a state college. And she was damn good at it. And you know what? She never complained about her job. Ever. She complained about some of the people she worked with (especially the ones that ate her jelly beans) but never about her job. I remember getting home after work when I waited tables at the local diner and I'd complain about a customer or a co-worker or just about how unhappy I was working there and Mom said to me "Tara, I clean toilets for a living". That usually shut me up. And that was the closest she ever came to a complaint.

Everybody Mom worked with loved her. The last building she worked in was the sports complex but she had worked in a bunch of other buildings on campus too. When she passed away we got condolence cards from so many offices on that campus and everybody from her co-workers to teachers to coaches came to her visitation. I even heard that the college flew the flags on campus at half staff and sent out a memo letting people out of work at 4:00 if they wanted to go to the visitation.

Mom worked hard and she got along with everybody. She could almost always find the positive in a situation. She was a good person. Her memory makes me want to work hard, be a better person, try not to be negative, and get along with everyone even when it would be very easy just to speak my mind.