May 2-8, 2022

This year our annual Mother’s Day Contest has 3 Categories so you can have more opportunities for a chance to win a $50 Amazon Gift Card.

Category 1: Mom & Me Selfie

Submit a photo of your mom with you!

Category 2: Write an Essay, Poem or Memory

Loving, caring and supportive are just some of the wonderful words we use to describe the women who helped share our lives. Show your love in an essay, poem or memory that tells us what makes your Mom “The Best”

Category 3: Childhood Photo Recreation

Share any pics from your childhood and recreate it as accurately as you can! Same clothes, same pose, same situation. Closest recreation wins!

Contest Rules:

• Deadline is midnight May 9, 2022
• You allow Accesso Club to use your submission for the newsletter, social media, and website
• Anything considered offensive will not be displayed and will be excluded from the contest
• The winner will be announced May 13, 2022
• Contest open only to tenants of Accesso properties
• Participants must work in an Accesso building
• Participants must be Accesso Club registered members

And the winners are…

• Elisha Johnson, Brown & Brown, IDS Center-Minneapolis
• Melissa Grabowski, Wells Fargo, Innovation Park-Charlotte
• Dorinda Mack, Decision Information Resources, Inc., 3900 Essex-Houston

Congratulations to the winners! you will be contacted to receive your $50 Amazon Gift Card

All Entries:

Category 1: Mom & Me Selfie

Category 2: Write an Essay, Poem or Memory

Entry # 2-1: Paul Lockwood
Vitality Group
200 W. Monroe-Chicago

My mom, who was a music major in college, was a talented pianist, organist, music teacher, and choir director. She instilled in all four of her sons (including me) an interest in music – each of us playing an instrument and/or singing. My oldest brother and I still sing in choirs and/or solos/small groups. A vivid memory from June 1994 was when all of us gathered at the Vermont home of our parents to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary one year early… because Mom’s breast cancer, which she had fought a hard battle against, had spread to the point that we knew she wouldn’t survive another year, her tumor actually emerging through her chest – a horrible sight to see. Their pastor was with us at the time, and Mom wanted to talk about what her memorial service might include. She asked my oldest brother if he’d sing; he agreed. I was surprised that she didn’t ask me to also sing. As it turns out, she thought I couldn’t handle it emotionally because of how close I was to her – as the youngest, with a seven-year gap with my next oldest brother, I’d grown up almost like an only child and was very attached to her. Mom passed away just over a week after that discussion. In finalizing the memorial service, Dad asked if I would sing “His Eye Is On the Sparrow;” I agreed, but Mom was right – I barely held it together while singing, breaking down when I returned to my seat. I was only 34 when she died; 28 years later, I still miss her dearly. I love you, Mom.

Entry # 2-2: Carolyn Finley
Accesso
Yorktown-Houston

Everyone has a great Mom. Because Moms have super powers they give birth to little humans that become adult humans. Mom if I turned out to be a bad adult it’s not your fault you did a great job raising me. My mom is a mind reader she always knows when something is wrong with me. My mom is a comedian she tells the best jokes. My mom is the best grandmother to her grandchildren. If God took me to a garden full of Mom’s I’d still pick my Mom she is the best one God created just for me and my siblings.

Entry# 2-3: Vanjaya Thomas
Wells Fargo
Innovation Park-Charlotte

Mom
Mom you are the woman I yearn to be when I grow up. Your strength your smile your confidence in everything you do is like no other.
Your touch your style your smile lights up the room
I don’t know what I would do without you
The Mother to us all the Grandmother to village the LOVE you provide is unmatched.
We see you we love we NEED you in this thing called life.
We cannot do it without you. Thank you MOMs Thank you Grandmothers Thank you Auntie.

Entry # 2-4: Melissa Grabowski
Wells Fargo
Innovation Park-Charlotte

Mothers….. What can we really say about the women who we call our Mothers? They are all amazing in their own way and most don’t get enough credit for all they do. Mothers are Superhero’s without the cape! Mine certainly was!

I feel blessed to have had 28 years with my Mother, before she was unexpectedly taking from us, in a tragic car accident. Being a Mother myself and no longer having a Mom around, gives me an ever greater sense of gratitude for all that my Mom did. Growing up, I idolized my Mom (still do to this day, even though she is no longer with us). She was the strongest woman I knew. Raising 5 children alone, was no easy feat. Yet she never batted an eyelash or even seemed flustered when she should be. I often have a hard time understanding how she was so easy breezy, amidst the chaos of 5 children and 10 grandchildren ( I have a hard time staying calm with only 2 myself).

My mom was all of the things…. A hair stylist by trade, which meant we always felt on the up and up of all of the newest hair styles and fashion trends. Aside from that, she was the epitome of a nurturer. There was never a moment I didn’t feel loved or secure being with her. Some of my Aunt’s used to get a little jealous, because she just had an innate ability to calm all babies, even my Aunt’s children and grandchildren, when they had a hard time calming them themselves. She was known as the “Baby Whisperer”. She welcomed all people and loved them as if they were her own children. In fact, at my mother’s funeral the sheer number of people who attended, spoke volumes to the person she was. Each and every person that was ever graced by her presence, took time to speak aloud or to her children personally and all told us how loved and welcomed she made them feel (sometimes even more so, than their own parents). I called my Mom, a “Jack of all trades”, because she was good at anything she did. She was the best cook and made sure to take the time to teach each one of us kids how to cook for ourselves. She taught us to drive stick shift, in a world where stick shift wasn’t so popular anymore, but she wanted us to know how, in case we were ever in an emergency. She was the craftiest person I knew and could make something out of nothing. She made all of her children and grandchildren’s Halloween costumes every year. She taught us to grow and take care of a garden, as homegrown fresh herbs and vegetables were the best to have. I love gardening to this day. She wasn’t afraid to get on her hands and knees and get dirty and have some good ole fun with the kids…. “you have to be willing to be kids with them” she used to say. She made sure to attend every event for anyone in the family, whether it was her children or grandchildren or even nieces and nephews events. She made time for everyone. Yet the one person she often forgot about was herself. Thinking back, it saddens me that she deserved the world, yet she always sacrificed herself or her time, for everyone else.

I could write a book on the wonderful person my Mom was and still never run out of things to say about her. It makes me tear up just writing about her now. In ending my favorite thing about my Mom was her understanding and compassion for all human beings. That is probably one of the greatest things she could have instilled in me. I am proud to be her daughter and proud to have had her for the time I did. I hope I am even a shred of the mother she was.

Mom’s are the greatest gift ever! Cherish yours and all of the time you have with her

Entry #2-5: Robert Graham Jr.
Accesso
1776 Yorktown-Houston

Entry #2-6: Kim Murray
Accesso
1776 Yorktown-Houston

“A mother is she who can take the place of all others but whose place no one else can take.” 

Entry #2-7: Silvia Leon
Accesso
Accesso One-Hallandale

I was named after my mother- Silvia

Growing up, I never identified with my name. To differentiate between my mother and I, my friends and family would call me “Sisy”, and for a long time, I preferred it that way. But as the years passed, and I became a mother myself, I began to feel differently about my name.

Personality and social psychologists have found a unique association between people’s names, and various aspects of their personalities. When I think of my mother, I think of her wisdom, kindness, support, ferocity, loyalty, and her ability to love others unconditionally. My mother taught me how to see the beauty in myself, and in others. She showed me how to be selfless, patient, and kind. She taught me to love God, to always speak my mind, and more importantly, to always speak the truth.

My mother is my hero, best friend, nurse, seamstress, psychologist, photographer, chef, shoulder to cry on, drool on, sleep on, and above all, my biggest cheerleader. No matter how many times she hears me complain in frustration over the small things weighing me down, or beam with enthusiasm about my ongoing projects– I can see in her eyes how proud she is of me and of the life we have worked so hard to build together.

When I reflect on it now, I am honored to carry my mother’s name.

Mom, every day is your day. I appreciate your genuine advice, your unwavering love, and your constant support. We are always planning, sharing, tired… in a thousand different ways but always together!

You make every day brighter, I love you always!

Your daughter,
Silvia Leon

Entry #2-8: Dorinda Mack
Decision Information Resources, Inc
3900 Essex-Houston

The Love and Faith of a Mother

The memories of my mom, Mary Frances Harris from New Orleans, LA are so vast. She was a true mother of 10 kids, as well as the neighborhood mom to so many others. As a mom myself I am not sure how she did all that we needed and wanted 24 hours a day, seven days a week. She cared for us and the neighborhood while working as the Director of a Head Start daycare. She was also the CCD teacher at our church. She walked on faith and administered the teachings of God. Fortunate for us, she was able to make our most important events while we were growing up in spite of working and volunteering her time to others.

My fondest memory of my mom was when Katrina flooded New Orleans. I had already moved to Texas and was established in a home that we were blessed to be able to take in 27 family members. Of course that meant we were stepping all over each other. Family members were stationed all over our home, on the dining room floor, in the study, even with make-shift beds in the walk-in closet. My husband and I were constantly making trips to the grocery store or Walmart and Target to get staple items for the gang.

Well my mom kept up with her neighborhood kids as well as her church groups and old lady gang while they were all displaced in different areas of the US. Most came to Houston since it was close to home and was considered BIG. One day during the third week of this catastrophic event, I brought in donations of under clothes, towels, washcloths, bedding, and many toiletries from co-workers who pitched in to help us out. My friend Rick also donated a 50 quart ice chest filled with meat.

My mom was so overwhelmed with joy that strangers could care about her family’s well-being that she decided to share her wealth with others. Mind you, my list of helping family and friends grew to more than 60 people by this time. The overflow were in hotels surrounding our community. The extras would come over during the course of the day to get information on places they could get housing and financial assistance. We also were the hub for them to use computers or fax machines to send off or receive documents to complete their government forms.

While at my home, they were offered food and drink or the use of a private restroom. Somehow our food multiplied as with the teaching of Jesus, and the few loaves of bread and fish. I was already trying to curtail the number of people my family members brought over to use the equipment and eat, when my mom decided that we were truly blessed in spite of how much we as a family lost because of Katrina. She called her folks up and told them to come get these fine towels and toiletries because her daughter and son-in-law were wealthy enough to care for her immediate family. Now did I mention that my husband was a sales man and I an office manager raising three kids and a granddaughter of our own? Did I also mention that my dad was suffering through stage 3 cancer of the kidneys and my mom was mending from a heart attack as an onset of her diabetes? I started off extremely upset with her at first, but by the end of the day, she showed me that love prevails. I’ve been living my life as a helper ever since.

Happy Mother’s Day in Heaven Mom!

Entry #2-9: Yolanda Wood
Allstate Insurance
Innovation Park-Charlotte

Mom, what can you say about a mom, well if you have a mom like mine you can say a lot and it still wouldn’t be enough to express the love, appreciation, and gratitude that I have for my mom. My mom is the most loving, selfless, caring, outgoing, motivating, woman of God I know. She was in a head on collision about 12 years ago and crushed her right leg, broke left leg, collapsed lung, and broke right arm, she is in pain 24 hours a day 7 days a week, 365 days a year, she manages to take care of her step father, her husband, 3 children and 2 grandchildren no matter what is needed, she cooks, cleans, sews, creates, shops, and so much more daily, barely able to walk and stand up. She is currently in the hospital because she had to get an ankle replacement from the leg that was crushed in the accident that had to be put together with medal rods. At the hospital she is still doing work for the church and her family making sure that we are taken care of and she is still in horrible pain. She is over the missionary at church and she was a youth leader for years and everyone still calls her momma Wood cause she is just an awesome woman. I would love to be able to give her something for mothers day for the awesome woman she is. Thank you for allowing me to share.

Entry #2-10: Tanya Asrar
Premier Workspaces
One Allen Center-Allen

It’s no secret that my Mom is absolutely THE BEST,
Indeed, she is far better than all the rest.
To be her daughter, I am truly blessed.
She is my OG since day one,
Who can balance the lessons, learning, and fun!
Whenever I am with my Mom, I know the good times have only just begun.
She is supportive when I need her to be,
And knows when to give me space and let me be me.
My Mom always encourages letting my creativity flow free.
It’s because of her that I learned how to walk, talk, and cook,
Despite all those times she scolded me or simply gave me “the look”!
Not only did my Mom walk to me my first day of preschool, but she bid me a fond farewell in college only after making sure that I had every required textbook.
No one beats my Mom’s home cooked food.
Even though my appreciation for it has always been a little skewed.
I can always rely on my mom to make me smile and put me in a good mood.
I thank her for teaching me so much,
For being patient with me even when she was in a rush,
And for always being soft and gentle with her touch.
She is always there to wipe away my tears or share a laugh.
I’m forever grateful to my Mom for teaching me how to count, spell, and even draw a bar graph.
She is the best paparazzi and knows how to take a nice photograph!
My mom is my style guru.
I’ll always be her baby, it’s true!
I may not say it enough, but Mom, I love you!