Callings: The Purpose and Passion of Work

Don Byles talks with his daughter and protégé, Mackenzie Byles, about being a funeral director. The Byles Funeral Home has been in the family since 1904. Don knew by junior high school that he intended to follow in his family’s footsteps. Mackenzie will one day be the fourth generation of the family to run to the funeral home.

Mackenzie started to think about it seriously in high school, while her sister showed no interest at all. Now she is training with her father to take over the business. It can be difficult dealing with grieving families, particularly parents who have lost young children, but she loves helping people in her own way.

Mackenzie asks her father if he is nervous about her taking over, and he responds, “I’m positive you won’t let me down. They’ll be talking about you before too much longer” (63).

Ledo Lucietto speaks with his daughter, Anne Lucietto, who works as a mechanical engineer. Both Ledo and his father were engineers, and he recalls how Anne would follow them around asking questions. When Anne was five, she asked if girls could be engineers, to which her father said yes.

At a young age, Anne took things apart to learn how they work and put them back together again. Ledo taught his daughter that she could be anything, including an engineer if she wanted. She followed in her father’s footsteps and became a mechanical engineer. On her first day on the job, she felt like her grandfather was there with her. Ledo is proud and believes her grandfather would be too.

Phil Kerner talks about his career as a tool and die maker. Kerner grew up in Erie, Pennsylvania, in the 1960s, watching his grandfather, uncles, and father work as tool and die makers in their own shop. He grew up in and around the shop with the smell of the machines and workman’s hand soap. The shop was the “center of [his] universe” (68).

When he was young, however, his father died, and his uncle died six months later. Soon after that, the shop was sold and then burned down in an accident. His mother remarried, and they moved away. In college, he decided to work as a tool and die maker like his family.

Eventually, he started his own shop. It felt like a blessing from the family when he bought some used equipment that turned out to be equipment that survived the fire in his family’s old shop. Years later, he was forced to close the shop due to financial concerns and now works to help small businesses with similar issues.

Barbara Moore talks with her daughter, Olivia June Fite, about working as a bricklayer. Barbara did not have money to go to college and applied to be an apprentice with the bricklayer’s union. She faced resistance as a woman trying to break into a “men’s job” but worked hard and eventually gained acceptance.

Barbara worked with an older man who bequeathed her his tools when he died, a show of great respect in the business. She worked even when she became pregnant and took great pride in each building she helped construct.

Her daughter, Olivia, explains that seeing her mother work so hard and never complain inspires her to be strong. When she goes to college, she feels that she is doing it for both herself and her mother and wants to be able to repay her mother. However, Barbara insists that she does not need to be repaid. She never felt it was a sacrifice.

Noramay Cadena speaks with her daughter, Chassitty Saldana, about her work as an engineer and entrepreneur. Noramay recalls working as a child with her mother in a bungee cord factory, where she saw what her life would be like if she did not escape. She was a good student in high school and had teachers who encouraged her to be an engineer. Despite giving birth to her daughter during her senior year of high school, she applied to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and was accepted.

She earned her bachelor’s while raising her daughter and then worked for six years before returning to MIT to get her master’s in business and master’s in engineering. With these degrees, Noramay became a consultant who improved working conditions in factories, looking at safety and ergonomics. Her parents, who still work in factories, inspire her to help all factory workers. Meanwhile, Chassitty says that watching her mother succeed despite so many obstacles has shown her that anything is possible.

Olga Ayala, a sculptor, talks with her ex-husband, Efraim Ayala, about her mother, Ramona Cruz, who was an artist. Her mother always wanted to be an artist, but as part of a traditional Puerto Rican household, she put her dreams on hold to take care of the family.

However, Ramona drew at home, which inspired Olga at a young age. Olga eventually attended the High School of Art and Design in Manhattan, which her mother said was a gift so that she could pursue something Ramona was never able to. When Olga began selling her artwork, her mother was one of her first paying customers and biggest supporter.

Though Ramona made her own art later in life, she developed Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, which cut her career short. Now that her mother has died, Olga feels that her art is a “living testimony” to her mother.

Dr. Larry Michaelis and his daughter, Dr. Laura Michaelis, speak together about their work as physicians. Larry explains that his grandfather was a pharmacist and his father was a physician and surgeon during World War II. As a child, he often joined his father on medical calls. He knew quickly that he wanted to be a physician as well but did not want to just be his father’s son, living in his shadow.

Likewise, Laura often went to the hospital with her father as a child. However, she initially worked as a reporter for nine years before deciding to go to medical school. Larry believes the nature of their family makes medicine the right field for them. Laura says that the need to take care of people is a part of who she is.

Johnny Bradley, a farmer, speaks with his daughter, Kathy Bradley. Johnny recalls growing up in a family of sharecroppers and picking cotton at the age of five. It was a difficult life, and he learned quickly how little power they had as poor sharecroppers. He left the farm when he was 18 and did not return for many years.

When Kathy started college, Johnny had an opportunity to buy his uncle’s farm, just two miles from where he was born. This time, he’s not a sharecropper working someone else’s land but the owner. He says that he “had left the country, but the country never got out of [him]” and that, deep down, he wanted that kind of life (91). He is living exactly the life he wanted and feels fortunate.

Ricardo Pitts-Wiley talks with his son, Jonathan Pitts-Wiley, about being an actor. Ricardo was bullied in high school as a Black kid in theater but persevered because he knew that acting was what he wanted to do. He won a drama scholarship to college and then was hired by the Trinity Repertory.

As part of this theater troupe, he met many gifted people and learned a lot. He wanted to make his mark on the world of theater and give back to his community. However, he had two children and decided to devote more of his time to raising “strong black men” (95).

One son earned a law degree, but Jonathan wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps. Ricardo tried to discourage him at first but relented. Jonathan, meanwhile, regrets that his father never received the admiration and recognition he deserved. They both agree that their family made it worth it.

Gayle Lain speaks with his wife, Sheryl Lain, about his father, Red Lain, who was an oil rig driller. Gayle’s father worked in the oil fields, making gasoline during World War II and after. He was a driller, the person who ran the motors, in five-man crews. Part of his job required moving from drill site to drill site, so the family moved often, living in small trailer houses. Oil rig driller is a dangerous job, and when Gayle was 12, his father died in a drilling accident.

As a teenager, Gayle went to community college and got married. When he was unable to support his family, he went to work in the oil fields like his father. Eventually, he saved up enough money to go back to college and earned a doctorate. He thinks his father would be proud of him.

John Vigiano speaks with his wife, Jan Vigiano, about their two sons who died during the 9/11 terrorist attacks. John Vigiano is a retired firefighter, and one son, John Vigiano Jr., was also a firefighter, while the other son, Joe Vigiano, was a police detective.

John and his wife talk about how Joe loved the fire and police departments as a child and joined the police at age 17. Meanwhile, John Jr. did not care for the police or the fire department at first, declaring that he planned to be “the next Donald Trump” so he could make money and take care of his parents (109). Later, John Jr. came to respect the fire department and eventually joined as well.

Both sons were on duty in New York during the 9/11 attacks. The parents recall that Joe called when the planes first hit the towers, and they were able to say “I love you” on the phone. Joe was 34 and John Jr. was 36 when they died. John says he would not change anything; he is comforted by knowing his last words to them were “I love you” (110).