Serious illness can have a devastating impact on a family — but it can also strengthen relationships, bring family members closer, both geographically and otherwise, and, it is hoped, bring out the best in those whose lives it touches.
Such has been the case for Scott and Timothy DeHart, whose mother, Linda, was diagnosed last year with ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.
Since Linda’s difficult diagnosis, the family has banded together to ease the transition of the family-owned Franklin, Ohio-based AAA Wastewater Services Inc. from Linda and Eugene (the “mom-and-pop,” respectively) to the two sons.
As they navigate the transition, Scott and Timothy are simultaneously working to restructure and strategically reposition the 55-year-old company for sustainable success.
While they grew up together, the two brothers went in very different directions after high school and thus acquired experiences and education that couldn’t be more different: Timothy, having lived and traveled around the world, and Scott, who stayed put and worked for the company his whole life.
The two are looking to build off divergent strengths and pool their talents to strengthen the business’s foundation and set it on course for a profitable future.
Their strategies include charting out business and succession plans, documenting work processes and encouraging accountability among employees.
WORLD TRAVELER
Timothy never imagined he’d wind up back in his hometown and working for the family business. The youngest son in the DeHart family, he was an adventure-seeker who had spent time working and traveling around the world, most recently living in Lima, Peru, where he served as the director of Noche de Arte (Night of Art), an art-show fundraiser for the United States Embassy Association.
It was while he was living in Peru in 2007 that Timothy noticed that his mother’s speech seemed slurred over the phone. He urged her to see a doctor, and she was told it was stress. By 2008, Timothy could no longer understand her. “This clearly alarmed me,” he recalls.
While his parents were in Lima on a visit, Linda saw a neurologist who was the first to suggest the possibility of ALS, a terminal illness that affects nerve cells that control muscle movement. Another doctor later confirmed it.
“The problem is that ALS is not an easy disease to diagnose until the patient is further along with the illness,” he explains. “At that time, the symptoms become more recognizable. Since then, we have been taking it one day at a time.”
Finally, early last year, Timothy made the decision to come home.
“After speaking to some friends … I came to the conclusion that both my parents needed me and I had the skills to be useful to them,” Timothy explains. “I believe very much in being aware of ‘windows or doors of opportunities.’ The timing couldn’t have been better for me to move back home to help my mom,” he says. “So after discussing it with my parents, we decided it would be the best thing for me to do, and here I am.”
Timothy, now 40, had been gone 16 years and had lived in four U.S. cities and six countries. He had graduated from Ohio State University with a degree in advertising and journalism, had served in the Peace Corps, and had earned a master’s degree from the New School University, New York, in Organizational Change Management.
