By Shannon Williams
“Elvis has left the building”
Well, maybe it was not Elvis that left the building, but the Big Kahuna & Big Mamma did! So, who are these people I speak of and what building did they leave? Well, I am both the Big Kahuna and Big Mamma, and after 156,454 days or 42 years and 4 months, I have stopped working! Some say I retired, but I am not sure what to call it. I ended my employment on October 2, which was a few months, short of my 65th birthday. I had made my intentions to retire when I turned 65 in January of 2025 known to my boss about 6 months ago. I was tired and was on my 4th CEO in 4 years, I just did not think I could go through another transition even though the current CEO was someone I admired greatly. When to retire is the million-dollar question, with many factors to consider. Of course, there is the money issue, then the issue of what will my primary role be, who will I be??? I had stepped down from direct supervision about 2 years ago and moved away from most of the authority I had in the agency and focused on obtaining funding for the projects we served (I worked for a non-profit that provided affordable (HUD) housing to seniors and persons with disability). It was a good move, but they moved me, a social worker, into the accounting department, and I had to really learn how to use excel and lots of numbers. I had the best teammates, who supported me in all that I did, but it was not working with people. Since I had overseen most of the projects we had outside of California for over 10 years, I kept getting pulled back into day to day operations. I struggled with some of the styles of management and the continued movement away from caring for our seniors as the agency had done for 61 years. BUT that is change and we all know it happens. The trick is to leave when they all say “oh please don’t go, what will we do without you and not to wait to long and they all say “when is she going to retire”! I also felt the need to speak with my feet, so off into the sunset I went, well sort of LOL

So, what is a Big Kahuna and how am I one? In Contemporary English, Big Kahuna is a metaphorical term often used to describe a person in charge, the head honcho, or the top dog. In a prior life, I worked for a Mental Health agency that provided services to 23 rural counties in West Texas. I was primarily an alcohol and drug abuse counselor but was approached about being a manager for the large mental health center. My son had just turned 9 months and we wanted a bigger house, so I agreed to be the manager of the clinic. At that time, the case management program for outpatient mental health services was still new and those positions were not clinical in nature, so we hire lots of people fresh out of college with a psychology degree. It just so happened that we hired one from Oklahoma and before you knew it we had several of his fraternity brothers working for us. I was their boss, big sister, Mamma, all of the above. For most, it was their first real job and they worked hard. On my 40th birthday, they gave me a pot luck birthday party and the “guys” walked in with this great big wood (fiberglass) sail fish. They never admitted it, but eluded to the fact that it found its way to their car after being in a bar one night. They had started to call me the Big Kahuna earlier as they all knew I loved the beach and I guess I was a bossy boss! They presented me this fish and I was honored with their gift and title. I often said that when I left the agency, me and the fish would walk out the door.

About 12 years after this, I decided to make changes and left the mental health field. It was a time that I spoke with my feet, as the state of Texas had just implemented a waiting list to get mental health service. I could not accept that, how do you tell someone and their family that they need to wait to have a mental health crisis and to get services. At the time, the State of Texas was 43rd in funding for mental health in the country, meaning 42 states spent more on mental health services than the state of Texas. As I prepared to leave, I went down to the basement to find the fish and he was gone. How could they, by then all of the “guys had left” but my fish was a legend, as my name, as I was now overseeing all the mental health clinics in all of our counties. I was so upset, who had taken my dear fish! No one really seemed upset but me. Two days later, I attend the going away party they threw for me and guess what? Yes, the Big Kahuna fish was the centerpiece!! They really pulled it off and I never had a clue.

I took my fish and changed the type of social work I did and had always thought that one day I would do something with my fish. It moved with me to the coast 12 years ago and we hung it up downstairs and it was used as a bird perch for years. One of my employees had made some repairs on it and sealed it until the day I could paint it. My name changed from the Big Kahuna to BIG MAMMA as I again to work as a MOM (Manager of Managers). The first time a new employee would hear someone call me that they would get a look in their eyes. I would say not to fear, it is no secret that I am kind of big (fluffy) and it has and will always be a term of endearment that I wear proudly.

For many years, I have loved and collected Oaxaca painted wood animals. They are creatures carved out of wood and painted with Zapotec patterns. They are traditional made in the Oaxaca region of Mexico. I had always wanted to paint the Big Kahuna in this style, but knew I did not have the art skills to do that. Never fear, I knew someone that could! I had mentioned it to GKay Ainsworth of g+k design studio several times, but now I let her see the fish and several of my Oaxaca animals and told her to do her thing!! WOW, she nailed it! I am sorry, but could not find a before picture but it was just a big fish painted gray and now it is truly a Big Kahuna, and has been a gift of love several times over.

It now has a place of honor on my deck, and hopefully we have it where the birds do not take it over again. I could not be happier with my fish and all the memories it holds. I am still trying to figure out what retirement looks like for me, so I will keep you posted along the way of this new journey.

[SW: Nov-26-2024]