Those Who Make a Mark on Your Soul

During my younger years, I use to belong to an organization called Business and Professional Women, in which I served twice as president. In those years, several women made an impact on my life but one in particular really stood out. Her name was Marie I. Swingley and she had worked many years for the Easter Seal Society in Tampa.

Marie acquired polio as a very young girl and because of that spent her life, since then, in a wheel chair. This never seemed to bother her; her outlook was always positive. It was due to her constant "pushing" at me that I was able to accomplish so much in this organization and she always remained supportive; she even nominated me as Woman of the Year once and the nomination letter was beautiful (below).

Occasionally, she would call me up for a ride to a local or district meeting, which I never minded at all. However one time she told me, "it's okay to say no, in fact it gets easier to say it the more you do."

I thought, how odd for her to say that, yet I answered her that I could never tell her no. I went into an explanation about my mother never learning to drive and I knew the difficulties she had when dad wasn't at home due to the military. Knowing the strain that had put on our family, I swore I would get my driver's license and help my mom, or any other that felt they needed to get somewhere and had no way in doing so. This meant Marie was stuck with me taking her and saying yes all the time.

Eventually though, I did listen to her advice. Being a type of person that can and had been taken advantage, due to my allowing nature, I began to see her reasoning and learned to say no, when I meant no, and not to feel guilty about it. It took a long time but I learned to ward off those outer and inner emotions to do something for someone when deep down inside I knew it would be a hardship on me.

As I became more intuitive, those "saying no" lessons came in handy.

This is one of the reasons I wanted to blog about her and her inspiration to me. The other reason was that a few years back I started thinking about her and wondered why. I wondered how she was doing as I had lost touch with her, however I got busy and put it out of my mind. Then, about a year ago, I thought of her again but got this feeling to look up an obit. I didn't find one but did discover she had crossed over and thought how sad to discover that. Recently, I got those same nagging feelings and then it dawned on me that maybe it was payback time. It was time to show a tribute about her due to all the things she did for me.

Marie would never tell anyone her age but I remembered her birthday and that's how I found information on the Internet. It is limited information but it's there for anyone to find on their own. I'm sure she won't mind me sharing this information now, it is public record. Marie was born on October 5, 1936 and died May 4, 2006 in Hillsborough County, Florida. She is buried at Woodlawn Cemetery and was 69 when she crossed over; which I consider that a feat in itself due to the effects of polio.

The last news article I could find with her name in it was this one in 2003 under the section Sung Heroes: http://www.sptimes.com/2003/10/10/news_pf/Citytimes/Theater_ball_is_a_suc.shtml

I know her star must still be shining out there and that's why I got all those feelings. Anyone that had that much energy as a physical person, and not being encumbered by a wheel chair now, must be having a grand old time.

Keep on keeping on, Marie! You will be eternally special in my heart because you let me know how special I was. Many people before and after you made an impact in my life, but this tribute is about you. Stand up and take a bow!