August 28: Bobby Russ
I see her in my dreams, in my heart, and in my mind. She is a deep part of
who I am today. I wouldn't trade my time with her even knowing how it would
end for anything. I treasure every moment I got with her. She is gone too
soon. Today, while at work, I was talking with one of the stockers about
their name badge and showed him Renee's. He asked me to say hi to her. He
didn't know... I told him that she was gone. The look of confusion on his
face. I explained she was killed in a tragic accident. I watched as he had
the fallen look. It's part of the impact that she had. He told me she was
the type of manager that people wanted to work for. Someone who you wanted to
do your job right for cause you knew she worked hard too. When she was
transferring, she wrote a "Thank You" note to everyone who worked there. It
impacted him and he was sad to see her go. Obviously, he said he was sorry
for my loss, but as has been said by him and others... "sorry" doesn't even
convey the feeling. It wasn't just my loss, but a loss to this world.
I want to share another memory and again this one isn't from me. Bryce reached out to me after struggling to figure out how to deal with loss. It's something that we can all struggle with at times. He told me that when he found out about Renee's passing, he was away helping his best friend spread her dad's ashes. Renee was the biggest mentor he ever had in his work life. She was also his first boss that he truly looked up to and aspired to be like. She had a dedication like no other to Walmart to her job and to her co workers and associates. She would always take his questions when he had to call her early early in the morning for cash office questions. It didn't matter to Renee if she had gotten off a late shirt or not... she was always willing to help. From my perspective, I saw it more than some even knew. There were times she would be called multiple times by various people at stores across the tri-county area and sometimes even further... I would hear her phone ring and wake her cause I knew she would want to help. She never complained about me doing it. No matter she would stay and help whomever called.
As Bryce told me, she was quick to see if anyone needed anything and first to provide a solution. You always wanted her there ona day that everything went wrong as she seemed to somehow always make it right. He remembers a day when the power went out at 4565 as a Villager hit a pole and knocked out the power for the whole building. Renee sprang into action. She put him down at Self Check out REgister ringing up as many as possible as he was a really quick cashier (in his opinion and based on his scans per hour). Anyway, he starting ringing people up. He looked at Renee and said," I know I can go faster just scanning and running the register if someone could bad". They were slammed busy and had lines down into the aisles and only 15 minutes of backup power for the register. Yet, they managed to get all the customers out and by the time they realized what was needed to do, Renee was already gathering supplies to tape up the coolers. She was always one step ahead. She was never afraid to get the job done herself no matter the task nor to delegate as she needed.
He told me about how she showed that same dedication when she coached him for his first big mistaken. Even his second, beucase she knew he did wrong and an associate had came to her about it. It was plain and simple... it was his fault, but she took that as an opportunity to teach and train. His time at Walmart was some of the best he's had at any job. She taught him so much about being a good associate and he is grateful for everything that he learned under her guidance. There's nothing better than a manager that makes you feel like EVERYTHING was okay when they are in the building. As he wrote... "At Walmart, that's no small task".
Renee was amazing at Wal-mart. She worked her way up in the last decade. Her dedication made her a great manager and more importantly support. People knew she wasn't in the business for the money, but for the people. She cared in ways that many forget that managers can care. Often time, people when they advance tend to look for themselves and they don't build up others around them. She believed in mentoring and making intricate networks between people. She was taken and the loss of her in my broke my heart. It left a mark upon a lot of people across the stores she had influence as well as online communities that she partipated in. Sometimes I want to wake up from this, but it's not a dream. In my own strange way, I will tell stories of her and always try to help people remember who she was. I told someone today who had never met her about her, but they could see the pain her loss caused. They knew how happy she made me. That's the impact I think most people want to know that they had. Thank you Renee, for all of the years we had.