Mother. Middle School Teacher. Real Estate Agent. All around inspiration.

We couldn’t celebrate our mother’s birthday (or Mother’s Day) in person this year, so we did the next best thing - we had her as a guest on Lenard Team Connections!

We’ve always admired our mom for her ability to do it all seamlessly, selflessly, and with a positive attitude. Barbara was a middle school teacher in Queens for 33 years, mom of two children, and full-time Realtor. On top of everything, Barabara always makes time for others. Keep reading for tidbits of our conversation, or tune in for all the details here!

Doing it All

I was teaching middle school. I live in Smithtown, New York and I went all the way to Ozone Park, Queens. So it was over 90 miles a day round trip. When my husband got his real estate license he said, ‘Can you get your license just in case I ever need you?’ 

And that was start of my second career,  because he was successful from the get-go. 

So I'd come home and it would be, ‘Barbara! I made an extra appointment I can't cover, can you go and help me out? And also, we have open houses this weekend.’ In those years, open houses were a three to four hour marathon. We had to juggle and fit things in, but then I still found time to spend special times with (Danielle and Jon-David).

I’d get up at 5:00 or 5:15 in the morning, I’d have to be out of the house by 6:15. So I had to be highly organized. But I did do some cheating. Like sometimes I jumped in the car and went to the local deli to get the special for lunch.

Alter Ego: Teacher Barbara 

Those were very, very good years. Because I was a middle school teacher, so it was always exciting. Those are the years that everyone says, ‘Oh my god, the early teen years.’ But I really enjoyed those years.  

To this day on Facebook, I am connected with some of my former students. 

The Real Estate Journey

I can remember when my husband first entered real estate. In those days, real estate agents didn’t even have a book, it was these tear-off sheets. So Friday afternoons, he would come home with a whole box full. He would dump them on the floor in the box in the den. And Jon-David and Danielle had the honor of tearing these pieces and putting them into the binder. 

That’s what the real estate agents used. If a house came on the market on Monday, the world would know about it until it was printed up and put into these sheets. So things were quite different. 

That was how real estate agents learned what listings came on outside of their own offices. And then the way the public would learn is if they would see it in the local newspaper. It was important then to make sure that your listing or your office came out on the top of the list for the town. 

We were the gatekeepers, we were the only ones who were able to give them information, except for what they saw in the newspaper.

War Baby

I was born during World War II. So what's amazing is since it was such an unusual time period, even though I was very young, I have memories of it. 

There are some things going on now that bring back these memories. 

For example, the rush on toilet paper. When the virus was first starting, it brought back the memory of the rations that took place during World War II, where early, early in the morning, it was still dark out, my mother would put me in the carriage and take me to the stores to do the shopping. 

And also the feeling of the community like we’re having now. I lived in an apartment house in Brooklyn. We were one family. Everybody watched out for everybody else. And also Sunday was family time. That's what you had. You had families out with each other. 

And that's what I'm seeing now. I look out my living room window and see people on roller skates. I don't remember the last time I saw people on roller skates. So I think it's bringing back more family time, more community, more up togetherness, like existed at that time period when we all had to be together.

Words of Wisdom

I think my past experiences in life have taught me that I always have to move forward and look forward. That there's a future. And someday we're going to look back on time and we’ll have learned something from this time period. And we just have keep learning. 

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