Brighton: 2nd Grade with Ms. Scott ✔️

A Taste of Summer & We Drank It In

Memorial Day Weekend 

Miss Til - Three School ✔️

Good Bye, Transfer Tool Products

May is always an exciting and often overwhelming month around here.  I think we've had something going on every night for weeks.  It's Brighton's birthday. It's Tulip Time. As a teacher it's full of special events, last-times, good-byes, graduation, and the parties that result.  

My dad had his own last-time, his own good-byes, and his own parties.  He worked his last day at Transfer Tool Products Incorporated.   He started this company with his partner, Jon Fiore, when I was very young, he was quite young then too...ha ha.   TTP is where my dad worked as long as I can remember.  What my dad did as a career is not something I could ever easily explain.  I often just said, "He makes parts for cars."  That depth of understanding did not improve after the time he had me go to work with him and sort parts.  I quickly determined this was not a field I was interested in pursuing.  I wasn't any good at sorting parts.  Outside of the office, it was loud and greasy too.  I think God had a sense of humor because I ended up marrying a mechanic with bad hearing and greasy everything.  

Entering into retirement is big deal, so we traveled to Grand Haven after school to be with him there one last time and to get some pictures.  My children don't really understand what their Bapa does/did. They do know there's a candy machine there that they always get to visit, and sometimes we stop there to use the bathroom or go out for lunch on our way to the cottage.  We walked out with him today into the parking lot for the last time, and I can only imagine what he was thinking and what he pondered on that last drive home from Grand Haven.  Oh, how many times he has driven that road!  

What a career, Dad!  So proud of you, so happy for you, so excited to have more time with you.

Happy Retirement!