Life & The Sunday Series

Find your why and find your way. Become more.

  • About Mark Brodinsky
  • Contact
  • The Higher Shelf!
  • Home

Need inspiration to find your why and your way?

Join the Tribe Today!

The Sunday Series (136), with Mark Brodinsky

January 22, 2017 By markbrodinsky Leave a Comment

Change.

There you have it. Encompassed in one word is the magical mystery which permeates our existence. Change will come, it will happen, the question is when. Do you make it happen, or does some higher power guide your path? The only sure answer is change is inevitable, growth is optional.

Life is not stagnant, life is ever-moving…there is ebb and flow, at times effervescent, at other times dark and ominous. Like any great drama on the screen or the stage, we see life play out right before our eyes. We are all actors and actresses in this performance, directed by, if you believe in such, a higher power asking us to take our roles and embrace them with all their magnificence, imperfections, joy and strife.

Play your role in life and watch it unfold, act by act, day by day… this stage of life is your story.

Everyone has a story.

I am Mark Brodinsky and this is The Sunday Series.


The Sunday Series (136): An “Act” of Service

Photo by Stephen Mosher

“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts…”
– Shakespeare

From the time she was a little girl Patty Lewis wanted to be an actress. Patty was bit by the acting dog, not the bug…the dog. More on that in just a moment, but first a question.

Who attends Northwestern University and doesn’t get a job in acting? Graduates of that university are the likes of Charlton Heston, Warren Beatty, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Megan Mullally, Ann-Margaret, David Schwimmer, Seth Myers, Gary Marshall, Stephen Colbert… the list goes on and on.

But as Patty will tell you she’s probably the most non-famous graduate of NWU, though in life what is true fame? Another question yet to be answered.

Patty does know that she loved the city where she attended school and perfected her craft, but the cold weather of Chicago was a deal breaker. She made the conscious decision as well not to head east to New York, or west to LA, but south, back home to Texas. Family concerns also pulled her to return and for a time she gave up pursuing her dream. Instead she worked, but unhappiness and feeling unsettled her attraction to the stage sent her back in pursuit of living her art.

That’s when the dog bared his fangs and life changed.

“Yes I was bitten by the theater dog, not the bug,” says Patty. “I went to this theater to pick up a script, but apparently I went in the wrong door and the director’s girlfriend had a giant dog and the dog bit me. The director and his lady friend were very apologetic, and I guess they felt bad so they gave me a role in the next show.”

Her canine encounter led to a few years of working in local theater, especially at Pegasus Theatre, where they perfected the art of Living Black and White – a performance, lighting and make-up which creates the illusion that the audience is watching a 1930’s-40’s black-and-white movie brought to life on stage.

“I worked a lot in local theater,” says Patty. “Mostly in comedy and then transitioning to improv comedy, which is one of the most fun and scariest things a performer can do. I have a good comic persona, even though I look a little meek I’m really not and I was always able to play opposite my personality. I actually worked in a troupe that did a lot of risqué stuff.”

Theater is also where Patty met Spencer, the man who would become her husband. They met in a movement class, ended up working together in theater and Spencer pursued Patty. “I had no intention of marrying him, but he chased me around asking me, so I said if I want to keep him around I better do it,” laughs Patty.  Eventually she accepted the offer and took on her next role in life to become Spencer’s wife. It was an artistic collaboration that led, a dozen years later, to the birth of their son Chase. A marriage which took center stage for more than two decades, ending not by choice, but by chance.

  

Community theater doesn’t pay the bills and so Patty worked a number of jobs. But it wasn’t until her work at the FDIC, and the prospect of the government doing massive layoffs that she sat down with a job counselor who asked her why she was doing all this acting stuff, he told her she had a mind and a talent for business. “At first I was furious”, says Patty. “I told him you don’t know how hard I’ve worked and I’ve studied, but I sat down and thought about it and about five days later a friend of mine told me she got this offer to work at a company called Impact Productions. I walked in for an interview and these guys were playing foosball – and I said to myself, I love this place!’

“They were putting this TV show together called Common Courage, about quiet heroes who were improving lives and my job was to go out and collect footage and help get this show started. They hired me and I worked hard, but Impact also did live events for companies and I couldn’t help notice one of the companies they were working with, this sales organization called UGA, and all the activity surrounding this new guy in charge named Troy McQuagge. When the person in charge of doing the live events left, I ended up taking over to produce all the events for this company from 1997 to 2008. What was important to me is I got to see Troy speak, over and over again.”

It was the company Impact in synergy with the impact of a dynamic individual, who when life turned would also impact her own, especially when Patty’s favorite actor was about to star in his final performance of life.

In 2007 Patty’s husband Spencer started having back and stomach issues. A man who always took good care of himself, at first it was believed to be kidney stones, but after more testing and a biopsy, it turned out to be pancreatic cancer. “We were blessed about a million ways when Spencer got sick,” says Patty. “Pancreatic cancer is about as bad as it gets, most people live less than six months. But my husband was determined to live because Chase was only 7-years-old at the time and Spencer wanted to live long enough for Chase to know him.”

With the help of MD Anderson in Houston, some pancreatic specialists and Spencer’s will to survive, he ended up living with what Patty says was “a good quality of life” for the next 2-1/2 years, eventually succumbing to the disease in 2009.

But it was right after Spencer’s cancer diagnosis where Troy McQuagge directly touched Patty’s life. She says UGA was planning a Super Trip to Hawaii which meant Patty was looking at being away from Spencer and Chase for more than two weeks. Instead of living the separation, Troy flew both husband and son to Hawaii and put them up in a separate hotel for the entire time. “I would go to work during the day, interact with the agents and every night I would go back and spend time with my family. It also gave Spencer and Chase the time to be together and bond. When the company trip ended Troy extended our time in Hawaii for another week so we could be together as a family and have that memory. It was like a Troy McQuagge Make-a-Wish Trip.”

Patty also says her theater friends and that community also stepped up to help, especially when toward the end Spencer’s illness left him confused and forgetful and for much of the time unable to care for himself. But everyone pitched in to assist, providing meals and comfort. “I had been retired from the theater for almost ten years at that point, but it didn’t matter. So many people wanted to help and wanted updates on Spencer’s condition which I posted on Facebook. We were super blessed to feel so much love.”

After Spencer’s passing that life event and other changes with UGA led Patty to start her own business doing live event and video productions, eventually creating a partnership. Patty eventually dissolved the partnership and in 2011 Troy came calling. He said the original team from UGA and some others were building a new enterprise called USHEALTH Advisors and he asked if she would she like to participate. Patty says she didn’t hesitate, she accepted and joined in.

Patty will tell you herself she is a like a jack russell terrier, full of nervous energy – drawn to new experiences and opportunities and in 2013 she decided to take on one of her life’s desires and earn an MBA. She went to school and graduated in 2015.

At the same time, and as luck would have it, another opportunity presented itself with USHEALTH Advisors, a chance for Patty to put her degree and her outgoing personality to good use.  She now serves as Vice-President of Customer Service for the company…developing her own system called PEAK.

Patty says, “PEAK stands for Performance, Enthusiasm, Ability and Kindness”. Patty says she wants her team to be the best of the best. She says she is working the “Troy culture” with her team and with the customers and agents they serve. This past year Patty’s customer service team has worked incredibly hard – an intense year of training, motivating, improving and growing, that they entered their story into the competition for a 2017 Stevie Award for Sales and Customer Service… Service at the speed of Sales. They are finalists and later next month will learn if they have won a Bronze, Silver or Gold Stevie. (The Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service recognize the achievements of contact center, customer service, business development and sales professionals worldwide.)

 

None of this is acting. For Patty it’s all so real – her time on stage, in theater and in improv served her well, teaching her to reinvent herself at every turn, in business and in life. Change happens and though life goes on without Spencer she has her son, 17-year-old Chase, an artist in his own right, and her USHA family.

Through all of her experiences and even more so today, Patty has discovered the role of a lifetime, one for which she is earning thunderous applause and worthy of a standing ovation…an act of service.

Until next time thanks for taking the time,

Mark Brodinsky

Join the Tribe!
Enter your name & e-mail address into the box on this blog and get posts sent directly to your inbox!

Author: The #1 Amazon Best Seller: It Takes 2. Surviving Breast Cancer: A Spouse’s Story
(http://www.amazon.com/Mark-Brodinsky/e/B00FI6R3U6)

Huffington Post: (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-brodinsky/)

The Profile: (http://www.talkinggood.com/profiles/MarkBrodinsky)

The Podcast: (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/sunday-series-courage-inspiration/id1028611459)

Biz Impact: http://www.prweb.com/releases/markbrodinsky/072015/prweb12862708.htm

Company “Stories”: http://www.ushacareers.com/news/

For more info contact Mark: markbrodinsky@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Related

{total}Tweet
{total}+1
{total}Like
{total}Share
{total}Pin

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Top Posts & Pages

  • The Sunday Series (66), with Mark Brodinsky
  • Life Is A Highway: Observations of Life
  • Your Turn: It's Just About... Life
  • Passion: It's Just About... Life.
  • About Mark Brodinsky
  • The Sunday Series (67), with Mark Brodinsky
  • "It's Your World Now": It's Just About... Life
  • What He Was: It's Just About... Life

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Search over 500 posts, including The Sunday Series

Get all My Latest News & Offers
Introduce yourself with your name and email below

#1 Best Seller on Amazon

Click to order your copy today!

The Book Trailer

Mark Brodinsky
Emmy Award Winner, 1996

Ever thought about writing a book? check this out!

Blog Reviews

Love seeing new blogs hit the ground running like this one (by a dad no less), but I also urge anyone vaguely interested in blogging to stay tuned, I am. Good luck on your journey – glad that I am along for the ride.

Rachel Blaufeld

Great blog Mark! I always appreciate reading what you have to say. You are very gifted and talented and hopefully someday you’ll not just blog, but write a book.

 Stephen Koncurat

I’m definitely along for the ride. We’ve all seen how much damage the written word can inflict. More positive writers are needed. And I love how you are using your personal experiences – those with your wife and children – and your gift of writing to open eyes and to inspire others.

Victoria Endicott

Absolutely beautifully written! The girls in your life must be very proud of you. Thanks for sharing Mark, I look forward to reading more!

Gina Glick Jolson

Very shortly this site will be famous amid all blogging and site-building users, due to it’s pleasant posts.

Leila Galloway

Absolutely beautiful! Are you at all thinking of penning a book? You’ve got a fan base out there that really thinks you should Mark. You write so eloquently. Glad that I got onto this site.

Marilyn Lefkowitz

Mark, You are truly a gifted writer and obviously, a special father and husband . Always a delight to read your words.

I’m speechless…beautiful words flow from your heart just like a gentle waterfall into a tranquil stream… thank you so much for the friend request I was blessed the day I clicked confirm.

Lynne Turner Dorsey

From your first writing in 4th grade entitled “People” which was published in the school newspaper, you have always been able to write. Never more so than when you started “Caringbridge” and now your blog, everyone who reads says what a wonderful writer you are. Our DREAM for you is to become an author and encourage people every day. You are by the far the best and we hope and pray you reach your dream.

Bonnie Brodinsky

I know you always thank us for reading but I would like to say thanks for writing.

Stuart Abell

Great piece. You are an inspiration!

Rob Commodari

Mark I just wanted to let you know that you are succeeding in your “ultimate goal”. I have gained so much from your blogs. I look forward to reading them for the special lift that they give me. Thank you.

Amy F.

I love waking up and starting my day with my coffee and your blog! It a great way to start my day with positive uplifting thoughts!! It puts me in a positive frame of mind throughout the day and allows me to reflect on my personal life, make changes, and grow !!!

Gayle Blank

You are quite talented Mark. Thanks for sharing!

Cynthia

I always look forward to your Blog Mark. Thanks for sharing and as you always do, make it a great / remarkable Day!

Chuck Connolly

Thanks for your Blog Mark. It is fun, encouraging and a nice break from a day full of ups and downs.

Jackie Hetrick

With my busy schedule, there is (sadly) little time for reading. But I have two must-reads every time I come across them, the sports section and your blogs. Keep inspiring and following your dream!

Ed Nemec

Mark, you are a truly remarkable individual. You do speak from your heart, I can’t wait to read your book. You are an incredible writer.

Debbie Press

Mark, I am glad I clicked on your post this morning, which lead me to your writing, your goal.
Would like to connect. This speaks to me.

Aileen Braverman

I can’t wait to read the book. I have followed all the blogs and feel so good that I know u guys. You make me cry but you make me laugh too. All the very best to you!

Beverlee Rendelman

Connect with Mark!

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

WOW!!! It Takes 2 is a must read for anyone who has known someone diagnosed with cancer or other life threatening disease. This is the real story of a family lead by an incredible woman, Debbie Brodinsky, who took radical steps to beat the breast cancer beast. The story is told by her husband, Mark Brodinsky, through journal entries he kept starting with diagnosis through one year cancer free. This author's unique ability to pour his heart out onto the page draws you in from the beginning and holds you until the very end.

Thanks to Mark and Debbie Brodinsky for this gift...I have a new perspective on what it means to be a breast cancer survivor. You are a hero, Debbie Brodinsky!

TeeBThree
September 25, 2013

ittakes2_reviews_2

This book gives a heartfelt, in depth description of what it is like to go through breast cancer with the one you love. It is beautifully written and I felt as though I was living it with them! I highly recommend this book!

Jgs17
September 24, 2013

ittakes2_reviews_2

In It Takes 2, Mark Brodinsky windows us into his world where his wife, the cancer patient, is not the only victim. Part journal, part roadmap, It Takes 2 goes to the real humanity of facing the mortality of one's better half. Mark's candid perspective, love, and fierce intention resonate with hope in a story which is about much more than cancer. Mark himself is perhaps the most heroic character for the way he appreciates this life and so many of us in it...as he says, "thanks for caring."

Réné Pallace
September 24, 2013

ittakes2_reviews_2

It Takes Two: A Spouse's Story by Mark Brodinsky should be read by every person who is experiencing serious illness or injury or by a loved one of someone who is experiencing either of those situations. The book is an eloquent testament to the power of love and the healing energy derived from the belief that things will get better. There is not one word of "poor me" from the author or his wife who suffered breast cancer and the radical surgery she elected to have to beat the cancer. Rather, the book is a celebration of the courage displayed by them both in seeing it through.

The book also encourages readers to speak and write down their true feelings and be validated in them. John Mackovic writing in the Palm Springs, CA Desert Sun on November 2, 2013 quoted author and artist Doe Zantamata who said, " To be happy, you don't have to do anything new. You just have to remember how to believe again...Believe everything good is possible. Believe in your dreams. Believe in people. Believe in love. But most of all...believe in yourself." The author, his wife, their family and extended family and friends never stopped believing in his wife's recovery, and I think, in themselves. Read this book and believe.

Paul A. Riecks
November 4, 2013

ittakes2_reviews_2

This book is a must read for anyone with a family member with breast cancer. It takes you through the spouse's perspective from diagnosis to recovery. Mark journaled his wife's journey and put all of his emotions out there. It is beautifully written and inspiring to anyone going through breast cancer. Thank you, Mark for sharing Debbie's story.

Jmu1109
October 23, 2013

ittakes2_reviews_2

A friend recommended this book. This was a great perspective of a man standing beside his partner and passing along to the reader fear, hope, useful information and a broader story than his own. I loved Vinnie the tattoo artist. This is a great book. Thanks for sharing, Mark and "thanks for caring"

Blahsan

ittakes2_reviews_2

This book is a must read. What sets this book apart from other books about surviving breast cancer is that it is told by the husband and his point of view, not from the survivor. At times sad, at times poignant but even through the worst of it you can always feel the love he has for his wife, her strength and the strength of their extended family and friends. The posts that are included from their friends and family lets you really into the heart and strength of the family. I would recommend this book to anyone who is currently going through this, whether you are the person or the caregiver. I also recommend this book to anyone who has a friend that has been or is currently going through their fight now. It was an eye opener for me.

L. Bogash
Seven Valleys, PA

ittakes2_reviews_2

There isn't a shortage of books about breast cancer, but most are written from the perspective of the person who has battled cancer or a physician or other expert. What an enlightening experience to read about breast cancer from a husband and caregiver's perspective! Not only does the author give us insight into his wife's experience and emotions, but he openly shares and reveals his love, compassion, support, and, yes, sometimes anger at the disease as he stands by his wife's side during their journey to beat the beast. Your story may not be the same, but I guarantee if you have a loved one battling cancer, you won't go wrong reading It Takes 2.

 PattiM
September 25, 2013

 

ittakes2_reviews_2

From the moment I opened this book I never stopped reading. Mark invites the reader to come along on this journey that his family went through. I cried, laughed and learned so much. This book will give comfort and knowledge to those going through similar situations. Most importantly, Mark and his family never give up. They get knocked down and get right back up. They fought cancer together and with their strength, determination and will to prevail... They do!

 Jenny Schloss 

Recent Comments

  • Patricia Storey on The Sunday Series (152), with Mark Brodinsky
  • markbrodinsky on The Sunday Series (152), with Mark Brodinsky
  • markbrodinsky on The Sunday Series (152), with Mark Brodinsky
  • Abby Scherr on The Sunday Series (152), with Mark Brodinsky
  • Sheila Hyman on The Sunday Series (152), with Mark Brodinsky

Short & Sweet: It’s Just About… Life.

I awoke this morning and stopped to think of just the thing to say. It’s not that hard in the early light, before you start your day. For if you find a couple words and set your path out right, then your map is ready, your compass set and you won’t have to fight. For […]

Pure Imagination: It’s Just About… Life

It’s that time of year, for reflection and for future planning. The time we all look to the new year and wonder what it will bring – the same, better, or worse – the latter being the one to ignore, because it’s not worth thinking about – if you do so then you close your […]

Categories

  • Life
  • Sunday Series
  • Uncategorized

Pages

  • About Mark Brodinsky
  • Contact
  • Resources
  • Storytelling
  • The Higher Shelf!

Connect With Mark!

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Categories

© 2023 Life and The Sunday Series. All Rights Reserved.

Built Masterfully on WordPress and Maintained by the Blogging Experts