A note from our CEO and Co-Founder Dorothy Gibbons

This time last year…

This time last year, we had not yet experienced the “great flood” at the Featherwood office, or even seen the heroic actions of the staff, or spent weeks moving people, furniture, files…things.

This time last year, some of us could still hug a husband, mother, father, friend…the list is endless of the people who were with us last year…loved ones were finishing their time here on Earth and were preparing to go “home.”

This time last year, some of us were working at other jobs and had never even heard about The Rose. Others of us were in different jobs at The Rose.

This time last year, the move of the Joan Gordon Center seemed a long way off. This time last year, there wasn’t a ROSE sign on one of the busiest highways in Houston.

This time last year, digital imaging was still this vague, much talked about “thing” that involved lots of meetings and yet was not quite real.

This time last year, babies were just starting to grow inside their mothers’ bodies and mothers were dreaming of their futures.

This time last year, no one gave a thought about Channel 2, or month-long commercials and phone banks. Who would ever have envisioned The Rose becoming a household name almost overnight?

This time last year, no one heard of Plain State Jail.

This time last year, 300 women did not know they had breast cancer or that their lives would never be the same again.

This time last year, they would never have known how incredibly important a phone call, a pathology report, a consultation with a physician would be…how incredibly important another day of life would become. For most of them, their very survival depended on what you were doing at The Rose.

We all have a relationship with time. We never seem to have enough time; we ask where did the time go? We marvel at how time flies. We try to stop time or hurry time.

As our oldest living volunteer, Helen Perry, often reminds me: “Saying ‘I do not have enough time’ is not a statement of fact but a judgment of value.”

We all choose how we spend time, who we spend it with, how much time we give and take, when we use it wisely and when we do not.

As we enter 2010, imagine looking back next December. What time did you make special? What time did you give your family and friends? Most importantly, what time did you give to yourself?

My wish for you this Holiday Season is that next year, when you look back, you will be pleased with how you spent this precious gift called Time.

Dorothy
December 2009