America Deserves A Raise

I would like to nominate my husband, Edward, as an American who needs a raise.  About 5 years ago Eddie opened a pizzeria a little North of Detroit.  It had always been Eddie’s dream to own his own business and work for himself, and he thought he could make a better future for his whole family that way.  At the time we knew that we could live off of my income for a year or two while the business got of the ground if we had to, and with my husband’s talent as a Chef we just knew he could make a go of it.  So we put nearly all of our savings into the business in the hopes of a brighter tomorrow.  Then the worst recession since the Great Depression hit.  More than 5 years later my husband has yet to draw his first paycheck or show a profit, though he routinely works 50-60+ hours per week.  While the pizzeria continues to struggle to remain open, I am proud to say that he has always made it a priority to make our payroll, and keep as many individuals working as possible.  Additionally, my husband consistently tries to give back to the community by collecting donations, contributing pizzas, or donating to various causes.  Recently he held an event where he donated 10% of our total sales for the day to our manager’s family due to the sudden and unexpected loss of a young family member.  While this was taking money directly out of our pocket, he felt compelled to help this family in their time of need because they needed it worse than we did.

My husband’s biggest challenge came almost two years ago when his father was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer.  Eddie was forced to choose between the desire to spend what little time was left with his father, and the knowledge that if he spent too much time away from the business we would not be able to keep the doors open.  Closing the business would have meant total financial ruin for our family, and likely would have cost us our home as well as the business.  This decision tugged at his heart strings constantly.  While the year and a half between the diagnosis, and the passing of his father was by far the toughest period in either of our lives, Eddie did a masterful job of balancing the chaos of owning a business, and being there for his father and family when it really counted.  Eddie was at his father’s bedside when he passed last summer.

If Eddie were to win this competition it would be a godsend.  Like so many families in America we struggle every day wondering how we are going to make ends meet, and this would afford us the opportunity to have a clean start and really make a go of the business, and hopefully help others along the way.  Thank you for taking the time to read and consider this nomination.