6 years ago, November 10, 2016 was the official launch of IamBackatWork, the company I founded to support women and help them remain in, and return to the workforce. After months of hard work, building the platform, gathering resources, collaborating with a variety of experts to create a powerful webinar series, we held our first live webinar!

I was not there.

2 days beforehand I flew to Israel. My father was very unwell.

My father and I had quite a distraught relationship. He was an extreme chauvinist and growing up in my house meant that women were treated like second class citizens. I refused to accept his opinions and have been fighting for my rights as a woman for as far back as I can remember.

Founding IamBackatWork had a deep meaning for me. Supporting women and helping them regain their confidence and independence was important to my core.

It  became my mission.

The morning of November 10, 2016, launch day, we were called to the hospital and told that it was a matter of hours.

I couldn’t help it, with the sorrow and distress, it also felt like my father’s last effort, trying to impede my mission to support women. His last argument with me. Still, it was clear to me that I wanted to be by my father’s side in his last moments. He was far from the ideal father, but he was my father. I was also determined to not let him stand in the way of my launch.

I am forever thankful for my tribe who made the launch happen without me. Debby Frohbieter who took over for me as a moderator, Deb Elbaum who presented that first webinar, and my husband, who helped coordinate it all.

November 10 has become a sweet and sour day. One where I mourn my father’s death and celebrate an accomplishment I am very proud of.

Do you have days that are sweet and sour?