“It’s knowing how to juggle, with a lot of challenges for sure, but it works out, thank goodness. If you resist, things will be so much harder. Being open to change is a very good thing.”
Phyllis Morales’ Grandkids
Phyllis Morales
That’s how Phyllis Morales, MPTF’s Coordinator of Long Term Care Business Services, describes being a working mom and grandmother. She works with potential incoming residents and our social workers (including applying for Medical if needed), and she’s also looking after a 9-year-old granddaughter and 15-year-old grandson. Mother’s Day is special in their family; as she explains, “They make me breakfast, then we go out to dinner as a family. And for this Mother’s Day, I’m not sure since we’ll be celebrating my grandson’s birthday, but we might do both at the same time!” And her secret for balancing raising kids and a full-time job? “If you’re not open to change, things are going to be very, very difficult. Go with the flow as much as you’re able, because that will make things so much easier.” Originally hired at MPTF as a temp when our business office was behind the John Ford Chapel, Phyllis has been with us for 20 years and is such an inspirational part of our campus family.
Darlene Salas and her kids
Our Director of Geriatric Services, Darlene Salas, DNP, ANP-BC, has been with us for eight years—and now her daughter Isabel works on campus, too, in our Testing Lab, after first coming to MPTF at the age of 10 as a junior volunteer along with her brother. “In March of 2020 during the start of the Covid outbreak, we needed help testing and coordinating all the logistics related to keeping logs, result letters, things like that. She was on hiatus from high school at the time and really want to help. As a Gen Z-er she’s never lived her life without a computer and has an incredible attention to detail,” Darlene notes. “She’s able to navigate all of that stuff,” including the lab’s recordkeeping. “She loves working with and learning from older women who really value her input, and she got to find some meaning in her life when a lot of people were floundering.”
Working here and carpooling together has helped them share ideas, and “it was really interesting to see her perspective on how things were running, where the gaps were, and what we needed to do. She reminds me of why I became a nurse, in that fearlessness and the intensity of wanting to care for somebody, wanting to be a source of light and goodness in a time when people are really frightened.” To other working moms, she advises, “I think the bravest thing I can do as a mom is to advocate for myself and my kids.” Click below to read more of their stories, and to all of the moms here at MPTF and out there everywhere, we wish you a very happy Mother’s Day.
