54-24, 17-03, 17-34, 24-28, 05-46, 10-22,
07-53, 21-34, 21-13, 04-41, 25-06, 48-15, 48-22.
This week's
leads focus...
- Gus Dekavallas
- Mark Dreher
- Don Ellis
Phyllis Prater
Parkway Gem
Lab
Phyllis Prater told us this morning that
she was a lady of a few 1000 words. No truer words have
ever been spoken! Before talking about jewelry, she
thought she would give a brief background for the newer
members.
Phyllis was a pre-war baby. Her
parents were young, poor and lived on the road. When she
was 18-months old her father went into the Navy. He was
the soldier that handed the flag to the men at Iro Jima.
While he was serving his country, Phyllis and her mother lived
with an aunt that ran a boarding house. She had dinner
with 25+ people every night. She believes this is where
she picked up her gift of gab.
When Phyllis was 5-years old her father
returned. Life was great! He was a hard worker all
his life and his dedication earned him an early promotion to
general manager of a company. He took a month off for
vacation and took his family to Florida. On the way home
they were involved in a terrible car accident. It took
crews 6 hours to get her family out of their car. Her
father was killed instantly. They even thought Phyllis had
died and laid her covered body on the side of the road.
Fortunately, someone noticed her finger move. Phyllis and
her mother were so badly injured that four hospitals refused to
take them. They ended up at Rush Memorial Hospital.
Phyllis had severe head injuries and almost lost her arm
(luckily mom said no). She was unconscious for close to 3
weeks. She had to be reprogrammed. They said she was
trainable but not educable. Phyllis fooled them. She
graduated from UofA summa cum laude. And despite her
physical limitations she became a diver and won a few medals.
Phyllis got married and became a PE
teacher in St. Louis. She taught for 13 years. She
had 3 children. After 10 years of marriage her
mother-in-law - whom she adored - offered to pay for her
divorce. With only $1000 in her pocket, Phyllis moved west
with her kids. Her aunt moved in with her to watch
the kids while Phyllis worked.
Phyllis became the first lady ever hired
by Meade-Johnson's western division. It was a tough job.
In the meantime, her mother and step-father found out they were
having another child so they put off their retirement plans,
moved to Scottsdale and opened a jewelry store.
The corporate life was hard on a single
mother so Phyllis left and started working part-time in her
parent's store and went to school to get certified. She
loved working with her mother and did so for 12 years.
She knew she would never inherent the
store because her younger sister was now addicted to cocaine and
was draining her parent's assets. Her racquet ball buddy
was a State Farm insurance agent. He gave her the idea to
handle insurance replacements and helped her establish a
client-base. This little side business took off.
Phyllis was still helping out at the
store. One August night as they neared closing a man came
in and held them at gunpoint as he robbed the place.
Luckily no one was hurt. Unfortunately her parents did not
have adequate insurance and where forced into bankruptcy.
Phyllis married again. They agreed
that Phyllis would work until her youngest daughter got through
college. Then they would move to Germany. But her
husband suffered a heart attack. This pushed their plans
back. The new plan was for Phyllis to work until the age
of 55 and then retire and move to Germany.
People make plans. God laughs.
Phyllis and her husband where paying
things off. Work was good and their plans to retire and
moved seemed to be going well. Then Phyllis's crazy,
difficult sister went to jail and found out she was pregnant.
She agreed not to abort the baby but instead of putting the baby
up for adoption, she gave custody over to the homeless father.
It was a difficult battle. Long story short...Phyllis gave
a cop a smokin' deal on a ring and he got her the kid!
During her trials Phyllis never gave up on
God. But she often wondered what his plan was. In
hind site it became clear. If it wasn't for her step
father she never would have learned the jewelry business.
If it was for her crazy, difficult younger sister she would not
have her beautiful son.
If you want to know about jewelry, you
will have to tune in the next time Phyllis speaks.
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