Amelia Walsh

Dec 2024

Michaella had lost her job in August, been diagnosed with cancer in September, and had her first surgery to remove & diagnose her melanoma in November.

I was laid off a few months later, & had just been promoted to day shift supervisor a few months earlier. We threw a pizza party to celebrate all our teams wins over the years and time spent together.

Michaella was so excited when she found the pizza oven on Facebook marketplace for $40. We could have all the pizza we wanted, right outside!
We weren't allowed a BBQ and I know Michaella missed her nice weather Dublin BBQs.

Even though she couldnt be going through more herself, she put everything aside to reframe my job loss as a celebration of how far I had come.

Where I was going next didn't matter as much as taking a moment to really appreciate everything I had learned and been given on that journey.
The coworkers who turned into lifelong friends, relationships built with factory managers and workers, everything I'd learned about working on a team and how I could support my coworkers to give their best work.

I'm so lucky to have Michaella to celebrate my wins and losses in equal measure.

Michaella could find the sunshine in anything at all. Even her melanoma diagnosis we used to joke about- she was so full of sun it burned her. Its not quite as funny to me now to think of it that way. I think it was a great injustice to the world to lose the chance to know Michaella face to face. I'll do my best to do her justice 💖