A Member of our Family

Today we open our office to welcome the Parker family and the Williams family into Patricia’s professional world – but more importantly we open our hearts to them and to each other.

We are a strong team and we grieve so deeply because our team is a family and as Mike so perfectly stated in his note below to Team 3, the relationships we develop create the strong fabric of our firm.

As time passes may our tears wash away our pain and may Patricia’s memory bring laughter and joy, honoring the joyful person she is - and make our tears a distant emotion. To Patricia’s family and friends and to each member of our firm family, may God bless you and walk with you in the days ahead in the place we call grief and the journey we call life. Jane

Memo from Mike Beaver to the Rice Team

There are no right words to share or actions to take today as each of us absorbs the tragic event of Patricia’s passing. Without a doubt, today, and the coming days, will be the most somber days ever in the history of our Firm. Because we all handle times of sorrow differently, it is important to work through this terrible time at your own pace. Even though the deadlines and needs of our projects do not stop, please take the time you need to get to a point where you are ready to move forward. We are in a Firm and profession where we personally invest a great deal in our work and in doing so develop much more than casual relationships with our coworkers.

Recently the Rice Team has spent more time together as a team than we have spent with our families, and to suddenly lose our team member, our friend, is beyond difficult. She was the heart and sole of the Rice Team trudging through learning Revit and her tireless answering of questions was a remarkable gift of her’s. She never seemed burdened by the plethora of "how do you" type questions we asked all day / every day and she was unflappable throughout the many late nights as Revit issues and production issues emerged. For me she has been a very calming influence on our entire team.

I wish I were there today as you all come into work to share the grief I feel from so far away. Because we all choose to vest in our work and our work relationships as deeply as we do, we have opportunities to earn a living at the same time we develop friendships with our coworkers. We have all been through difficult production periods these last couple of years and it included many late night laughs as a group, as we all shared our stories and our personalities with each other. In the midst of all that we got to know Patricia on an entirely different level as she shared with us stories of her family, childhood and other snapshots of her life.

Again there are no words that can capture how bad we feel at our core with the passing of Patricia and the loss it creates for her family and our Firm. She leaves a void that only a person with her special personality can fill. When we take the time to listen to another’s stories, to share our life’s moments with coworkers and to actually vest in the lives of our colleagues we create a unique place to work. The relationships we develop at work to me are much more the fabric of our Firm than the built projects we collaborate on; therefore, on this sorrowful day I take a great deal of solace in how bad it feels to start saying goodbye.

Please know that as you share today I am with the Team in thought and spirit. It will be an equally difficult time in Houston moving forward as the problems seem so trivial today compared to this time yesterday morning.
Later today I will be sending a note to the Rice consultant and Linbeck contractor team about our loss and Jane has already sent a note to Hopkins. Today we all must do what we do best and work together to get through a difficult time.
Michael C. Beaver