By Holly Monschein

I have known Aimee for what seems like my whole life. As often happens as we age, Aimee and I lost touch for a time. On Jan. 25, 2016, my life changed. I was at a basketball game for my son. I noticed that a friend was looking a little glum. I sat next to her to try to cheer her up. This friend works for Charlotte Public Schools.

She said “We lost one of our own today. The dad of one of our students.”

As you may know, at the time, I was a substitute teacher. I knew many kids in our school district. I felt very protective of these kids. I asked who it was. Her response, rocked me to my core. Eric Rogers.

I knew who Eric was but I did not know him well. I knew he was young, too young for this. More so, I knew he owned Eric Rogers LLC and was married to my friend Aimee. Her daughter, Esa, would be devastated as well. I knew they couldn’t go through this without me. I reached out to Aimee and told her she could call me when she was ready. Aimee called me later that same evening and it was like we had never lost touch.

The loss of Eric put into motion, a job opportunity for me. Within, four months, I started a new job as the Office Assistant at Eric Rogers LLC. This quickly grew into a title change, Office Manager. I have been a part of the Eric Rogers LLC family for nearly two and a half years now. It didn’t take long to feel like I was part of the family here.

I have watched Aimee grow through her grief. I have watched Aimee grow the company. We aren’t the same company we used to be, there have been challenges and changes to be made. One thing that remains true, our customers and our employees are both a priority for us. We know that happy customers will help us grow and we genuinely appreciate them. Our customers each become part of our family here as well. For many of them, we know their patterns, if we don’t hear from certain customers after a while we will reach out to them to check on them. We are often able to help our clients in ways that aren’t really snow or lawn related. Our employees will sometimes help widows get their water softener salt to the basement or take care of a mousetrap or even carry bottled water inside.

Upon returning from a recent vacation with my family I was excited to return to work. It is wonderful to be able to work for a company that takes pride in their employees, their clients and their community.

Holly Monschein is the Office Manager at Eric Rogers LLC.