Brava

May 2011

Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/32804

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 49 of 83

Tammy Lee Even as a little girl, Tammy Lee was known for having the gift of gab—a talent she used so often that her father, a radio newsman, often bribed her to stay quiet. For the last 20 years, she has used her love for chatting and her sassy sense of humor to light up the airwaves. Today, the 44-year-old mother of five is one of Madison’s most beloved radio per- sonalities, waking you up each day on 96.3 Star Country’s John & Tammy in the Morning. Her laugh is simply infec- tious, but behind the smiles are a life’s worth of lessons learned from traveling down unexpected roads. Dear 20-year-old Tammy, I have sat down at least six times to write this letter to you, and have gotten stuck right here every time. I know you’re heading toward big changes, and there are a few things I want you to know. So here’s hoping letter number seven is the lucky try. You’ve done a lot in your short 20 years and you’re in for quite a few surprises. But the good news is, you are, in your own way, headed in all the right directions. Right now you are a wife and mother of a 1-year-old. You work 14-hour days at a cheese factory and enjoy your friends and family. You like your life and you should. You have an idea of where you would like to end up and what you want to do. I want to tell you your life will turn out nothing like what you have planned today and yet, you end up exactly where you knew you would be. Telling you to do something different would change things. It certainly would spoil the surprise of where you go, the people you meet and what you will do. It would change the forks in the road, and the knives too! Do I tell you that you will go to business school? That you will get divorced but end up friends? Do I tell you that you will be homeless for two months? That you will have several career changes, live in Arizona for two years, meet your future husband at a car dealership, end up with f ive great kids, working in radio doing a job you love…and that you end up a blonde? I could tell you that your life will take twists and turns, that you’ll do things you never imagined. I could tell you to make different decisions, but then you would miss the lessons you can only learn from experience. You have grown up knowing joy, anger, fear, love and sadness. You have loved and hurt others, and will do it again. I don’t even know how to begin to tell you that you lose your mom in two years. You still carry a lot of pain, although you now have a place for it. You learn how much the people around you mean. You learn that some things just are. But please don’t think it’s all sad. You laugh…a lot…and get to know so many people who will always live in your heart even if they leave this world. You don’t know how much you have helped others until much later. If I could tell you that worry and guilt are a waste of your time would you listen? See, at 44, you get a tattoo on your wrist that says “downstream.” It will become your motto in life. You learn that life is only hard when you paddle upstream. So put your oars in the boat and let life take you downstream. I could tell you all of this, but is that really a good idea? I like who you have become and that can only happen if I leave you alone and let you do what it is you do. So here is attempt number eight… Dear Tammy, You turn out great kid. Love, Me 48 P.S. I love you BRAVA Magazine May 2011

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of Brava - May 2011