Fairport Women

Rebuilding Home: One Piece of Sheetrock at a Time

By Deborah Feldman

I’ve always wanted to help people and that’s why I had wanted to be a lawyer; however, it was not my destiny. 

I was married for 11 years with two small sons, ages 6 and 7, when my husband died suddenly. Three months earlier we had hired a general contractor to build the exterior structure of a two-story addition, with the understanding that my husband and I were going to finish the interior. The contractor completed his portion in December and a week and a half later my husband died. As I looked around the incomplete disaster that was my home, all I could think of was “WHAT DO I DO NOW?”

Did I mention that I was a stay home mom? Yep, no job for the past 7 years with an unfinished home heated by tiny space heaters, little money, and a lot of time on my hands. So, for the next two years I took my children to school and for the following 6 hours I worked on the 1,100 square foot addition: insulated, hung sheetrock, sanded, taped, painted, you get the idea…

My home finally in order, I realized that I needed to get back into the income-paying work world and support my family. I realized that my educational plans had to change – logistically speaking, I didn’t want to be a hour away from my 8 and 9 year old sons. So, I applied for a part time “girl Friday” job at a two-year-old financial planning and investment management firm that was about two miles from my house. It was perfect – I could take the boys to school and pick them up after school. While this was not going to be my “real job,” (after all my plan was still to be an attorney) it would do for the time being.

What happened over the next few years was transformational for me – I saw there was another way to help people. Based on my life experience, I was uniquely qualified to help women through the emotionally difficult transition of widowhood. I enrolled at the College for Financial Planning, committed to study and pass exams for the next few years and once I received the rights to use the CFP® marks, I never looked back.

I’m creating this blog to do what I set out to do so many years ago – help people make informed decisions – whether it is taxes, investments, social security, estate planning, protecting you and your family, retirement planning, or how to deal with the “have nos” in life. In case you don’t know what the “have nos” are, no worries, we will get into this later…