Pat Purcell is full of surprises . When I first met Pat , she was a teenager infatuated with one of my best friends . Shawn was a few years older , and Pat was a friend of his kid sister . She apparently decided then that he would be the man she married . I was not surprised years later when Shawn told me they were engaged . Years later , after seeing her two children enter school ( and perhaps a decade behind her peers ), she decides to go to med school ! A huge surprise then , that in hindsight seems so natural . In more recent years , I started getting Social Security ; Pat was getting an MBA . Surprised ? By this time , not really . Over the years I ’ ve become less and less surprised at Pat ’ s many accomplishments in her professional life . I see them as mere reflections of the same qualities and attributes that I ’ ve appreciated for so many years in her personal life . I know Pat is proud of her career , but I also know it is far outweighed by her pride in her family and her role in those lives . In both lives it ’ s her character , confidence , perseverance and determination ; the inquisitive mind ; the joy in the yin & yang of learning / teaching . But mostly , it ’ s love . You can ’ t touch so many lives without it .
William Riddle
June 2023 9