What three words most accurately describe her?
Direct, confident, spoiled.
How does she encourage/teach you?
Mom struggles to be encouraging. It is subtle and discrete. You have to look for it.
What do you think she really loves about her career?
There is no doubt that she truly loves the contact with co-workers and customers at Farmers Bank of Lohman. Some of the younger employees refer to her as Grandma.
What quotes or sayings does she use most often?
Mom regularly told each of her sons during our teen years, “Everyone thinks you’re an angel, but you’re not fooling me.”
What traits does she have that make her successful?
Her sense of loyalty to her employer. She is grateful for the opportunity to work and earn a paycheck. Even at 80 years of age, she is still committed to being (somewhat) productive.
What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned from her?
The importance of family, to love unconditionally, and to communicate openly and honestly with family and friends to ensure there are no miscommunications.
“Everyone thinks you’re an angel, but you’re not fooling me.”
Carol Porter
What do you most admire about her?
She made sure my brothers and I were in church on Sunday mornings, and that wasn’t easy.
Anything embarrassing we should know about her?
Some years back, a man came to her station at the bank counter and softly said, “This is a robbery, give me the money.” Mom, being hard of hearing, replied back, “You’re going to have to speak up, I can’t hear you!’ She calmly did as instructed after he repeated it. If you know my mom, you are probably surprised that she didn’t lecture him about his wrongdoing.
What else do you want to share about her?
We have all heard it said that our experiences shape who we are today. This is definitely true in the life of Carol Porter. She and her 3 siblings were raised, for the most part, only by their mother. Her father returned home when she was 18. They had to rely on each other and good friends and neighbors for the essentials that we take for granted today.
She married her high school sweetheart. In her words, “the only man she ever had,” and had three sons.
My dad’s job took him away from home five to six days each week for a period of about 15 years. She was spoiled by her only brother. She was stuck with three boys on a 500-acre horse and cattle farm — she had to be confident in her decisions and very direct with her three sons, and I wouldn’t change a thing about her!
Narrated by her son,
Tony Porter
Agent, American Family Insurance