My Original Female Entrepreneur Role Model

My maternal Grandmother, Alice Kathleen Brophy (born Bartlett) is my original female entrepreneur role model.  I'm writing this on International Women's Day, understanding that some of you won't read it for about another week when you receive my newsletter....Having said that I feel compelled to honour her on this day.  My Grandmother (Nan) was born in 1915 and was about 4 foot nothing and full of piss and vinegar.  She started a village grocery store in the late forties or early fifties... not sure on the exact date.  Her store was the hub of our fishing village.  She sold everything from fish hooks to bologna.  She gave "tick" to everyone.  Fishermen didn't receive regular pay cheques and Nan provided their groceries and supplies, sometimes for months, until they sold their catch.  There would have been many hungry families if it weren't for her generosity.  She was generous... but she was also tough, smart, honest, kind, fair, loving, a teacher, a tough negotiator, a devout Catholic and above all, an amazing role model to me.  I can remember people coming to the door late at night long after the store had closed to get something for a fisherman's lunch, or for a sick child's fever.  No one was ever turned away.

I am the oldest of her 10 grandchildren and there were many special things that went along with that role.  One big privilege was that I was the first to "mind the store".  I was taught how to document in the "tick" book what was being bought, how to do the inventory, packing and unpacking, shelving and how to add up what was owing to her.  We would add page after page of items purchased over weeks and sometimes months... all in our heads!  No calculators back then!  She was a wiz!  My Grandfather, a fisherman, retired due to health long before Nan passed away.  She ran the store until the day she died at 77, hanging out clothes on a beautiful April spring day.

Here's a really crappy picture I took of her and Grandad in the store on Christmas Day... it was my first camera... I think I was about 13 :).  They are still 2 of my most favourite people in my world.


I'm aware of the many things she taught me, but I'm also aware that there are many, many more things that are simply part of me because of her.  I've had so many female role models and influencers in my life that I could write a book.  Today I am thinking about many of them and thanking and honouring them.  I hope you are doing the same,