The Shortest Distance Can be the Longest Journey
~~~~~~~By Georgette Pascale – Founder and CEO of Pascale Communications~~
For those of us who live in the New York tri-state area, the Superstorm known as Sandy presented some very unique challenges. I was luckier than many because my family is safe and my home is pretty much back to normal – but the days and weeks following the storm were, well, let’s just say they were very interesting.
The neighbors down the street lost more than electricity.
When the storm hit and during much of the aftermath, my husband was away on a business trip, so I was the adult on duty caring for three small children, several pets (one who was dying, sad to say), a brand new in-training nanny, and a partridge in a pear tree. (OK – the partridge is a fabrication and if we did have a pear tree, I’m sure it would have been blown down by the storm). We had no power at all, no heat, no hot water and the temperature was dipping.
For the first few days, we all bundled up to fend off the cold and I furnished the kids with flashlights that they wore around their necks. I conducted business solely with my iPhone and iPad plugged into the cigarette lighter port in my car and didn’t miss a beat. It was an adventure of sorts. We played lots of board games and lit a fire (in the fireplace, not in the middle of the living room). We lived like this for a few days until it just got too cold. It was at this point that we took the journey to my parents’ house, one I was trying to avoid – just a few miles away but one of the longest treks imaginable.
Dreaming of drier days in Pittsburgh
I packed up the kids and the dogs and went to Mom’s. Let me take a moment to say that my mother is a lovely person – but that she and I don’t always (OK, never) agree on child rearing techniques. I’m a free-spirited kind of parent and my mom is a traditionalist, a disapprover, and a hoverer. Add to that that she does not deal particularly well with small children or large dogs. Oh joy.
Well, the visit was everything I’d anticipated – and more. You can love your parents dearly – but after a certain age it’s best not to dwell under the same roof – or maybe even in the same city, state or hemisphere. After a couple of days, my kids started to feel a bit caged-in and stressed under the loving eye of grandma. Ah yes, it brought back memories of my own childhood. So – after careful consideration (about a minute’s worth or so) we packed up again and stayed with friends. It was easier that way – and helped to preserve our relationship with my folks, truth be told.
Now, several weeks later, my husband has returned along with the power, the heat and hot water. The kids are back in school, the new nanny is great and my business is once again being conducted from a proper desk and chair. Sadly, our beloved dog has gone to the big dog run in the sky, but we’ve welcomed a new little rescue dog to our home. (And no – we did not name it Sandy….)
Pascale Communications LLC. (PC) launched her own virtual company in order to address an underserved niche within healthcare PR. To fulfill her goals, while avoiding the constraints and office politics of a brick and mortar firm, Georgette assembled a community of experienced, self-starting colleagues from around the country, who embraced the virtual model she envisioned. Currently, with a staff of 14, aged from 21 to 59, Pascale Communications is a company that’s both closely managed and exceptionally flexible, accommodating the schedules of working mothers (seven) and busy freelancers.(www.pascalecommunication.com)
