We'll Miss You, Deb

Everyone has a Deb Bailey story. She's iconic. She's interconnected with the very fabric of this community.

When I met Deb I was working for Create Great Leaders - Grand Rapids Chamber. She came to speak to our Emerging Leaders group and her words still standout as a highlight of that program for me. She burst in the room of mostly millennials with refreshing candor and almost immediately started calling bullshit on every reason many of us had told ourselves about why we were too early in our careers to make an impact. She told us there was room at the table and that our community needed our voices represented. I know her message gave many of us in that room the courage to jump in.

Six years ago, as part of a Saint Mary's Foundation board exercise, I was matched me up with Deb for an interview. What I expected was going to be a fun, but fairly cordial, exercise turned into something much deeper. I had a freshly broken heart and she had some personal situations unfolding that provided a rawness that shifted us from "community homies" to "friends." For that, I will always be grateful.

For the past decade, Deb has served as an inspiration, an honest "gut check" and someone who, despite the many demands on her time, always answered my calls. Last Summer, she even helped me when I was wrestling with a big decision before Steve Faber and the boys moved in: did having tween/teen boys in the house mean I should start wearing bras under my pajamas?? "Yes," she said. "Definitely, yes."

Deb, Grand Rapids will miss you. I know I already do.