In honor of Mother’s Day this month, I wanted to pass along a note to all of the mothers at our company, as well as the original matriarch, my mother, Joan McGraw. If you recall our February article ‘Flexing Our Female’, we talked about the immense impact Joan has had on the company as both a supportive partner to my father and as a leader in her own right. She has been a crucial component to the success of the business and her living legacy at the company continues on through me.
As I’ve written about in the past, our company was built by a literal mom and pop on a foundation of moral family values. My mother, Joan McGraw, is a self-made woman, a mother, a grandmother, and now a great-grandmother. She handled all of the hats she has worn over the years with ease and grace. Like many other women at our company, Joan had to find a work/life balance which required extra hours, overtime, sleepless nights, tireless days, and all-around sacrifice. I admire all of the women who are mothers at our company and this line they toe each and every day.
There is that quote – “God could not be everywhere, and therefore he made mothers.” This could not be truer. I, personally, have the utmost respect for working mothers and their seemingly intrinsic ability to be everywhere. At 86 years young, Joan is still embodying her maternal role as well as her role as boss of the household. This month, we truly honor all of the women who work and raise children.
“Life doesn’t come with a manual; it comes with a Mother.”
Thank you to every mother who has ever worked within our corporate family!
– Mike McGraw, Chief Executive Officer