You know a lot better than the rest of us that the call to service and love requires saintly patience. Stay the course. Love and prayers always for you and the girls and all our FA family.

Tom and Caroline Hopkins
Quinebaug

Mary, you are to strong of a person to let something so ignorant affect you.

(P.S. – I probably shouldn’t be commenting)

She is the best and so are her girls! Love and truth prevails……….

Love me

I understand the lump in your stomach, I would be the same way. But I feel like you need to take a step back and realize how selfish and inconsiderate some people are. You have so much trust, and like to see only the good in people that when someone like this anonymous a$$ comes along you are just shocked and taken back! It’s understandable. However, this person should have no effect on your life. For all those who know you and came in contact with you for at least 30 seconds, it is so clear how much of an amazing person you are. Your heart is so full and you are constantly doing everything you can to help other people. You would NEVER do something (especially at your own fundraiser, and to people who have the same disorder as your own kin!!!) to make them feel left out or out of place. I was there in the morning while setting up and it was very difficult to try and find a spot for everyone. I feel we came up with the best floor plan with the space given. Some tables were larger than others and that’s what it comes down to. This person was clearly not at the fundraiser and did not see how much effort went into this. So, all in all, i’ve learned there are always going to be people who try to rain on your parade. All you can do is keep your head up, be confident with yourself and know that you are doing something amazing. You are an amazing person and I hope this person can learn a thing or two from you.

Thanks for everything Meir, love you!

Everyone you interact with, be it strangers you bump into, people in the community or your closest friends, know very well that you work extremely hard to spread your key messages: messages of inclusion for all people; “just be nice”; kindness; focusing on the positive in life; the importance of consideration of others; and, most aptly relevant in responding to this person’s email – - making the best of your situation despite adversity – use what you’re given and make it work! (and do it with a smile on your face!). You not only promote these messages, but you live by them on a daily basis and you uphold them while working very hard to coordinate and host the benefit dinner every year. These key messages are the core of you daily life, and the core of the benefit dinner.

The audacity of this person to write to you to complain about circumstances you cannot control or circumstances that you or any one of the committee members would have been happy to pleasantly address if anyone actually at the fundraiser had brought them to your/our attention is outrageous. What’s more incredulous is that this person is writing to you not based on his/her own personal experiences, or speaking up for a friend, but based on a “rumor”.

Instead of writing a “rumor” based email full of complaints and sarcasm, this “compassion” driven person should have listened to one of your messages: “just be nice” – and offered some pro-active suggestions for the next fundraiser. Perhaps he/she has suggestions for a free venue that is even more handicapped accessible than the one level Owenego with ramp access to the restrooms? It may not be “ideal”, but it is what we’re given so we make it work!  The “L” shaped floor plan of Owenego itself isn’t ideal for everyone to see – many people could not see – but it is what we’re given so we make it work!  The rain that night was not ideal, and unfortunately divided many guests up, regardless of their situation, but we made it work!  (And raised A LOT of money for FA!) Just like we work hard to make these things work despite adversity, if, at any time, a guest’s dissatisfaction was brought to the attention of anyone on the committee, I am fully confident that we would have found a solution, we would have made it work….and done it with a smile on our face.

Instead of focusing on the positives of the event, the positive ways that issues, if any, could have been addressed at the time they were occurring, or seeing what you saw as compassionate and positive – for example, considering long time friendships and putting friends together at tables, regardless of whether they were in a wheelchair or not — this person instead chose to focus on the negative and complain.

So in true Mary fashion – you should just treat this complainer’s email as just another opportunity to make the best of an adverse situation and continue to spread your key messages, to this person especially.

It is obviously very easy for this person to complain and focus on the negatives – that’s too bad. It must be hard for them to give constructive suggestions for improvement in a nice manner. So stay true to your key messages: just be nice & focus on the positives — invite this person to put in some hard work alongside you to implement their constructive suggestions for the next fundraising event! Hopefully, after they put in hard work, no one will sit back and write an email to criticize them, but they’ll be commended for their overall good intended efforts!

GREAT JOB AGAIN, MARY, FOR EVERYTHING YOU’VE DONE TO HELP CURE FA!

Time, money and awareness are required for full accessesabilty for everyone. Folks that care are willing to take one step at time (no pun intended) toward that end. I have a few colorful expressions for your critic, but I’m too much of a gentleman to state them here. As always- I’m here for you!!

I am so sorry that you have to go through something like this. Since the first time I met you many years ago as the realtor for the house we were buying, I’ve had nothing but the highest regard and respect for you. I don’t waste time on a lot of bs. This is just plain and simple: you are one amazing woman. You’ve had a lot to deal with in your life, mostly on your own, but you rise to whatever comes your way and just get the job done! I’ve never once heard a bitter word from you—whether in dealing with the girls or your divorce. As our friend Barbara Corso would say: the strongest muscle in the body is the tongue—or to be more current the anonymous email—use that muscle with great care.

Keep your head and chin up! You are and will continue to be a source of strength for many. The bitterness your blogger is expressing will only continue to cause that person grief.