Seven Percent from a Ninety Year Old Woman

Written by Regina Brett, 90 years old, of the Plain Dealer, Cleveland , Ohio


To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me. It is the most requested column I've ever written.

My odometer rolled over to 90 in August, so here is the column once more:

1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.

2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.

3. Life is too short – enjoy it.

4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and family will.

5. Pay off your credit cards every month.

6. You don't have to win every argument. Stay true to yourself.

7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.

8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.

9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.

10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.

12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.

13. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.

15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye, but don't worry, God never blinks.

16.. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.

17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful. Clutter weighs you down in many ways.

18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.

19.. It's never too late to be happy. But it’s all up to you and no one else.

20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.

21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.

22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.

23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.

24. The most important sex organ is the brain.

25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.

26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words 'In five years, will this matter?'

27. Always choose life.

28. Forgive

29. What other people think of you is none of your business.

30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.

31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

32. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

33. Believe in miracles.

34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.

35. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.

36. Growing old beats the alternative of dying young.

37. Your children get only one childhood.

38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.

39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.

40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.

41. Envy is a waste of time. Accept what you already have, not what you need

42. The best is yet to come...

43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

44. Yield.

45. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift.

Its estimated 93% won't share this. If you are one of the 7% who will, share this with the title '7%'.

I'm in the 7%. Friends are the family that we choose.

Nomination for a Chance to Win $5,000 Give-away for Good Contest

The Warford Foundation is pleased to announce that we have been nominated for a chance to win $5,000 in the $25k Giveaway for Good contest. Held in honor of WLR Automotive Group's 25th year of service, the contest will award $5,000 each to the five top vote getters to complete their project for Good.

Public voting begins on January 7, 2013 at the contest website, www.25kgiveawayforgood.com. If you go to the site before voting officially opens, you can sign up for email reminders that will alert you when to begin casting your votes. The top five candidates receiving the highest number of votes by midnight on January 24, 2013 will each be awarded a $5,000 donation. Individuals may vote up to once per day, so we urge you to let the community know that you pick The Warford Foundation as your project of choice!

Thank you very much,

Parthenia Warford
CEO/Founder
The Warford Foundation, Inc
www.thewarfordfoundation.org
www.thewarfordfoundation.blogspot.com
www.facebook.com/TheWarfordFoundationInc
www.twitter.com/thewarford
Office: 301-292-6034
Hours 10am - 5pm EST

A Salute to our Female Veterans

Veterans are most likely known to be male, not until lately are our Female Veteran's have come to the forefront

We would like to a salute female veterans that also serve as Chief Operating Executives (CEO) and Founder of non-profit organizations that helps others withing the military and their families.

She is a Wife, Mom, U.S. Marine, Poet, Writer/Blogger and Child Advocate. Founder of Operation Heroes Connect Tee Marie was recently featured in Newsweek Magazine

In Iraq, A Mom Marine’s Urge to Serve Nov 5, 2012 1:00 AM EST During the run up to the Iraq War, Tee Hanible, a young Marine working a desk job, asked to be deployed. It meant leaving her child behind. What makes a mother of a 3-year-old girl feel such a powerful need to sacrifice for her country?

That was Tawanda Hanible’s brother, Lindell, running down the sister who had always shown him up in school. Lindell was two years older and already a Marine. He told “Tee,” as she was called, “you’re too girly.” He forgot that she was also stubborn as a fence post. The odds had been against Tee from birth. Her biological father was shot and killed when she was an infant. She was raised in a strict foster home on Chicago’s deep South Side. Minnie Hudson, who lat­er adopted her and her brother, had four children of her own. Anywhere from two to 20 foster children rotated through Hud­son’s three-bedroom apartment, sleeping three in a room or on a couch or floor. At 15, Tee turned rebellious. Drugs had saturated the South Side like a plague. Crime went rampant. Drive-by shoot­ings picked off some of her friends. Tee lost her way. “Poor grades, wrong crowd,” was the rap on this once-star student. When word surfaced that her best friend was going to be jumped, Tee’s teenage rebellion found a cause. She smashed the glass on a fire alarm. “Run, take the side exit!” she shouted. The girl escaped a beating. For this tiny act of personal heroism, Tee was thrown out of school. Hudson, the only mom she knew, and dearly loved, was now in her 70's and sapped by a stroke. Too weak to reverse the backsliding of the brightest and most talented of all her children, Hudson sent the girl off to a paramilitary reform school in rural Illinois. Lincoln’s Challenge, run by the National Guard, gave Tee the structure and discipline she craved. She graduated with a scholarship for college. Read entire article Checkout Operation Heroes Connect

Presidential Proclamation -- Military Family Month, November 2012

We celebrate our military families not just in November but every month, Parthenia our CEO & Founder is a disabled veteran retired from the Army with a passion for our Nation's military widows.  We have several events during the year to help widows and children of our Heroes as a result of September 11, 2001.

Please take a moment to browse some of our photographs gallery from 2011-12 events

One Night of Celebration, Three Years of Charity, A Lifetime of Hope

DC Life on a Budget | September 5, 2012 | by Brittiany Taylor

The District of Columbia, Greater Metropolitan area is a land of politics, purpose, and partying on a budget. This week's Party of the Week, The Warford Foundation's Annual Black Tie Gala creatively combines all three of those areas. With the National Harbor as it's backdrop, Parthenia Warford, celebrated military woman, mother, businesswoman, and confidant to many, graciously holds this event at the world renown Gaylord Hotel and brings distinguished guests, entertainers, politicians, military widows, single mothers, and cross generational movers and shakers to celebrate and congregate all in the name of charity at 6 pm Friday among the crisp cool air that the harbor brings, with florescent lights from swanky upscale boutiques, restaurants, and hotels not nearly as bright as the night in itself. The Warford Foundation was started to help further enrich the lives of military widows and single mothers by enrolling them into nursing school programs, with the premiere program Project Impact Scholars, being the shining star of the foundation. Being introduced to the foundation and its founder three years ago, I have experienced plenty a party in conjunction with the foundation, but this one will definitely by the best one yet. Complete with seated dinner and what is sure to be a stellar performance from national recording artist and actress Tanya Blount, and the Mistress of Ceremony is Sophia A. Nelson, a limited number of tickets will be available at the door. To find out more about the party, organization, and how to give time, resources, or monetary support to the cause, visit here and also follow the foundation's founder on twitter @thewarford. This event not only enriches your life and spares your pockets; it enriches the lives of so many others who give their lives and families in the hope for a better tomorrow. What better way to thank them, than to party today, or Friday rather, while helping them live out dreams of their own. This article would not be complete without an excerpt from an interview conducted upon my first meeting with Parthenia Warford, founder of The Warford Foundation, found below.

"... In order to know more, I had to meet and get to know the woman who saw the need for The Warford Foundation, a foundation that provides support for single mothers and military widows pursuing two year nursing degrees. I did not know what to expect. Would Ms. Warford be as caring as her foundation or would this be a sterile and quick interview; cold and quick? I was greeted warmly by Ms. Warford, a petite woman with a strong presence. She invited me into not only her home, but her personal bedroom, which we all know is a safe haven and space where you just don't allow anyone. Against a backdrop of blues, Ms. Warford and I talked for three and a half hours. We discussed anything and everything, leaving no stone unturned. Of course, The Warford Foundation was our main focus, but in order to know and understand the foundation and the seriousness and selflessness that the foundation embodies, you must understand the woman who saw the need for such a program and stepped up to fulfill the need. A strong and determined woman with deep roots in Saint Louis, Parthenia Warford calls The Warford Foundation a project that was "thirty seven years in the making". At seventeen, Parthenia, with the help of her parents, graciously accepted the gift that was her first child. Although her parents supported Parthenia, Ms. Warford independently decided that she would care for her children on her own. Parthenia and her grandfather had once had a discussion about her joining the military. At first, she was not really entertaining the conversation, but a year and a day later to his death she enlisted in the army. And thus, her military career began. The size zero woman was no joke. Commanding the respect of her peers and superiors Ms. Warford climbed the ranks and pursued an illustrious military career. The confidence she may have lacked as the 17 year old high school girl was quickly replaced by a presence that stood six feet over her true petite frame...When asked about her elegant yet nonsensical aura and the affect the military might have had in producing it, Ms. Warford's commanders often joked,"maybe we taught her too well. She knows how to speak up so much that we can’t get her to shut up sometimes." But it is this fiery personality that allows her to be a favorite among the Georgetown Women's Club, where she was a guest speaker and panelists on the Independent Woman's Series. Parthenia also credits her mom with teaching her the old fashion sensibilities and strong and determined ways. Just as she can make a home cooked meal from scratch, Ms. Warford makes it known when you are crossing lines you need not cross when dealing with her foundation. It is also this spirit that sometimes felt her father feeling like he didn't get a chance to really father his one daughter of six, with him saying "You're my only girl, I thought I was a going to get to enjoy being a father to you but you handled everything, and we talked about it later." ...The honesty that attracts you to Ms. Warford and keeps you enthralled and hanging off of every word is felt by all. She has become a voice of reason to our youth. Males and females alike turn to her for guidance on relationships, school, life in general, and making a difference in particular. And she's quick to tell you that "whatever the situation, whatever she has to do, she serves it real in language that they understand"....Buy a ticket for a single mother interested in the program. Buy a table for your sorority or fraternity looking for a great cause to support, or a couple of seats for your co-workers or close circle of friends that want to support a worthy cause. ...There was so much information gathered at this interview, there is no way that I can keep it all confined in this one post, but do know that this is not the last that you have heard regarding The Warford Foundation and Brittiany Cierra. ... I leave you all with this telling quote from Ms. Warford excerpted from our interview, "This is my passion. This is what I love to do, it means so much to me. If I could just make one person smile by helping and doing what I like to do, I will do just that."