Glenn Lane, Founder of Westchester Family Care, recently celebrated his 60th birthday and Lisa was determined to make it memorable. She endeavored to celebrate with friends made over 40 years spanning different phases of Glenn’s career as well as family.
Along the way, they thought of the friends made through Glenn’s work at Ryan Beck, thoroughbred horse racing, Aegis Holdings/SST, J.P. Morgan, Citigroup and others. The tie that binds all these former work colleagues together has now made them “family” and it is a value and foundational premise of Westchester Family Care.
This is Lisa’s story about planning six different celebrations!
For the record, I started to think about how to appropriately celebrate Glenn’s milestone birthday very soon after his last birthday. I had many different ideas about how to accomplish this …
- alone together,
- with friends,
- with family,
- with friends and family,
- an intimate gathering at home,
- in a special venue or a party at home,
- travel abroad,
- travel within the US,
- travel on the East Coast or maybe just in the Tri-State area with Cash, our beloved Miniature Schnauzer. (Sad note – we said good-bye to our sweet boy on July 5. Look for a future blog on the role of pets in our family and to our well-being)
…and on and on and on.
“During the ‘Month of Glenn’: celebrations of various shapes and sizes
In the end, inspired by Glenn’s declaration that the month of June, his birthday month, should be the “Month of Glenn”, I decided to have a series of celebrations of various shapes and sizes which started on June 1 and did not end until June 9. Although I didn’t have things lined up for the entire month, frankly I don’t think we had another 21 days of celebration in us.
The different events included:
- Saturday – dinner in one of our favorite restaurants, Spadaro’s in New Rochelle with about 20 friends,
- Tuesday – annual Westchester Italian wine tasting event for the two of us hosted by our favorite Wine Teacher Kevin Zraly,
- Wednesday – Glenn’s annual traditional pre-Belmont dinner at Becco NYC with several friends and colleagues from horse racing days,
- Friday Day – lunch from Hash O Nash, with the team at Westchester Family Care,
- Friday Night – an over the top romantic dinner at Blue Hill at Stone Barns for the two us,
- Sunday – Dinner with pizza, meatballs and cake at another local favorite, Polpettina with Glenn’s family.
All were amazing and well executed but it was the first of the celebrations, the dinner at Spadaro that triggered our reflection. I wanted the guest list to include those friends with whom we were closest. I wanted it to be those that have shared our lives and have shared their lives with us. I was so pleased that everyone that was invited was able to attend. I had planned the dinner as a surprise; although he played the part up until the end, Glenn was not completely surprised.
Oh well ☹
But what did surprise him were those who came to celebrate with us. As he looked around the room, there were people who we have known either together or separately going back 40 years all from different phases of our lives and careers. This sparked a comment, “haven’t you guys made any new friends in the last 20 years?”
“These factors moved us to a very satisfied and contemplative place in our hearts and minds.”
The evening was a success. The food was excellent, as was the wine and champagne and the birthday cake, Italian pastries and biscotti. Everyone talked and laughed, those who had met before, caught up and those who didn’t, shared how they knew us, funny Glenn anecdotes and pictures of kids and grandkids. All of these factors moved us to a very satisfied and contemplative place in our hearts and minds.
Later that night when we were alone, Glenn and I recapped the evening. I already mentioned that he wasn’t really surprised by the event but by who was there. Looking around the room, represented were the different phases of both our lives:
- grade school,
- high school,
- summer intern jobs,
- thoroughbred horse racing
- Wall Street jobs,
- financial services startups,
- home health care startup,
- first cousins from different sides of the family.
“Despite the fact that we did not share DNA, these people were our family.”
Some of these folks we speak to every day and others we haven’t seen or spoken with in over a year, yet here they all were. It was validating in a way that we haven’t felt in a long while. In fact, despite the fact that in most cases we did not share DNA, these people were our family. And as we looked back we realized that most of these people have shared other milestones with us, they are our family.
But the other striking thing about the evening and these people who were assembled on behalf of the one thing they had in common, namely us, was that in fact, we were not the only thing they had in common. Our newer friends from home health care were bonding with a friend of 40 years from summer internship days, the cousins were bonding with the grade school friends over grandchildren, the Wall Street friend who once worked with Glenn was bonding with one of my more recent Wall Street partners and the restaurant owner who we have known for almost 10 years was bonding with everyone!
So, were there lessons learned for us? Indeed.
Number One: family is not only defined by blood or DNA,
Number Two: we have much more in common with each other than how it may appear on the surface, and, Number Three: nothing beats sitting around a table sharing excellent food and good wine with people you love and who love you right back!
… Lisa Ingrassia, July / 2019
Glenn Lane is President of Westchester Family Care Inc. (WFC). He launched WFC on the belief that delivering high-quality personal home care through exceptional caregivers can “let family members be family again.” Four years later, WFC has become an award-winning Licensed Home Care Agency, assisting people of all ages, by customizing home care plans to maintain a healthy quality of life and safety at home.
For more information on how Westchester Family Care can assist you with care at home, or for career opportunities, give us a call at any time (914) 223-8073, or apply online.