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Health & Fitness

'Dance Moms,' Restaurants and Things We Do For Love

Local women do crazy things for what and whom they love.

Yesterday I logged 51.7 miles in my beat-up mini-van doing the circuit to youth group, gymnastics, unicycle club and back to gymnastics, all on twisting Pittsburgh back roads. By the end of the evening I had spent 3 ½ hours in the car with two ten minute breaks, and felt so queasy I stopped at the Giant Eagle to buy soda biscuits.

These, as you probably guessed, were not activities for me. My kids love them, thrive there and develop life skills (yes, even in unicycle!) so pretty much every Wednesday evening I endure this local road trip. Thousands of South Hills parents do similar things for love everyday.

Some people take what they’ll do for love to the extreme. Upper St Clair mom Leslie Ackerman has exposed herself to a slew of potential criticism by appearing on the Lifetime reality show 'Dance Moms.' It is not always a pretty portrayal. But Leslie has not done it naively; she thinks it might ultimately help her daughter’s dance career so she is willing to take the flack “for love.” (Read the story)

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Cathleen Enders was in love with the dream of opening a restaurant. One month shy of being fully invested in her job she walked away to open Wild Rosemary Bistro on Bower hill Road in Upper St Clair.  Luckily the restaurant is a success. She and her partners, Gloria Fortunato and Lynne Bielewicz, all from the South Hills, work 60+ hours a week, but they love it … (Read the story)

Jan Donovan of Mt. Lebanon loved her career as a therapist and marriage counselor, but felt she needed more expertise to help victims of sexual abuse who came to her practice. This was in the late 1980s; where else would you go but to the famous Masters and Johnson Institute?  She endured six months of seven days a week training, and the ego’s of the infamous couple, but it was worth it; 20 years plus her love for her career is still going strong.  (Read the story)

Find out what's happening in Upper St. Clairwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

We do crazy things, big and small, for what and whom we love. One day maybe our kids, or clients, or the people who eat at our restaurant, will tell us they appreciate what we do. Or may not. But it doesn’t matter; we do it for love.

 

Read all the above stories and more in the February issue of Wise Women, a local e-journal for and about women of the South Hills.

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