Desire

I was always proud of the way my sister took pride in her various jobs and really worked hard at them. Her first job was at Burger King and she worked with my mother. Years before, my Mom had returned to work at Carrol's Restaurant and after leaving for a bit, she resurfaced when those restaurants became Burger Kings. I can still remember those wonderful Carrol's Club Burgers. In my mind, they were far superior to the Big Mac. Of course, nowadays I have to stay away from those kinds of foods (high cholesterol).

While my mother was winning recognition as being one of the fastest BK drink makers in the region (she actually won some competition and I still have trouble imagining that), my sister was hard at work making sandwiches in the back or taking orders up front. At one point, she even got an interview for her little brother, but he was a fool and was not interested. Sorry, Tam. My sister always worked hard and worked fast. Unfortunately, you don't see much of that in the workplace anymore.

Years ago, I received a weight bench for Christmas and my Dad stayed up late to put it together. I was never much of a weight lifter, but I was proud to use it and believed that I had become Charles Atlas after just a couple of lifts. Later, I was devastated when Tammie loaded the bar up with all of my weight and benched it. She was tough!

Throughout her life, Tammie worked at a variety of jobs in retail, restaurants, and in education. One of her finest moments was probably when she worked on the War of the Worlds movie set as a tutor, but there is no doubt that her most successful and favorite "job" was raising two great young men with Michael. At every step along the way, my sister had pride in her work and a desire to do more. She was a very determined person with a tremendous amount of energy and I miss her strength. Right to the end, she never gave up.

Finally, I want to submit to you an over the top comparison to Winston Churchill's "Never, Never, Give Up" speech. If Tam could see and hear this stuff, she would no doubt be laughing her head off and that would make me laugh, too. In any event, I listened Tam and I have a plan.