Musings from my driveway, my home and my heart
When my mother-in-law Audrey Lienert died peacefully in a Michigan hospice on June 23, 2016, she was dressed in a new lavender nightgown and had freshly manicured nails. Her room was filled with objects that defined her, including a flowered straw hat and a picture of her looking like a young Judy Garland in her... Continue Reading →
My grandmother, Rozalia Krzemienski, a Polish immigrant with a third-grade education, ran a tiny shot-and-a-beer bar for autoworkers in Detroit for 60 years. I spent my childhood summers with her, watching her deal with customers and make decisions as the small-business owner of the Rose Café, which was named after her. She taught me some... Continue Reading →
A schnauzer, a hatchet and a rosary were some of the tools my grandma relied on when she was forced into retirement at age 84 the day after my grandfather died. They ran a little shot-and-a-beer bar called the Rose Cafe on Michigan Avenue in Detroit that served Cadillac and Chrysler autoworkers. It was a... Continue Reading →
Just two hours into our annual neighborhood garage sale on Saturday, it was clear something was wrong. “Nobody’s buying anything!” said one neighbor. “I’ve only sold $10 worth of stuff.” In recent years, bargain hunters would be running up our driveways an hour before the official start time of 8 a.m., searching for the best... Continue Reading →
When the conversation lags at business dinners or cocktail parties, I like to liven things up by asking people a simple question: “What was your first job?” People have done everything from “herding turkeys” to “recording the results of PAP-test smears.” But all seem to agree that a first job is not only memorable, it... Continue Reading →
My management style has been stitched together in a patchwork of lessons learned from some memorable women I’ve met and worked with, including a CEO who survived one of the worst terrorist incidents in U.S. history, a hospital chaplain who preached the “theology of hospitality” in the workplace and a top editor who models and... Continue Reading →
Anita's Way 