This is a replay of an interview I had with Denise Braithwaite a few years ago. She is the owner of Go Green Urban Landscaping Solutions. She talks about her mother and grandmother who moved their family to Brooklyn from St Thomas. They were strong women who beat the odds of the day and bought a house during an era when women home owners were the exception, not the norm. Denise carries on the tradition with her own landscaping business which offers a exceptional values to members of her community.
Emmalou Penrod 0:06
Welcome to In Support of Families. This is Emmalou Penrod. My guest today is Denise Braithwaite. She is the owner of Go Green Home Maintenance Service. I met Denise through some networking and we found we share a commitment to supporting families from different aspects. But still, we value families Denise, welcome.
Denise Braithwaite 0:33
Thank you. Thank you for inviting me,
Emmalou Penrod 0:37
Denise, tell us about your business and where you’re based what you do.
Denise Braithwaite 0:43
Well, for 10 years, I ran a landscaping company known as Go Green, Urban Landscaping Solutions. Here, I decided to expand my services to include both inside and outside home maintenance service. So now we do home repairs, house cleaning, addition to taking care of the yards and all of that, and we specialize. We’re located in Brooklyn, New York. And we specialize in what we call clearing jungles, we have a lot of properties here that have very overgrown backyards and front yards, and we go in and in a few hours, my team and I, we have it all cleaned out. So that that’s our specialty.
Emmalou Penrod 1:31
Now that sounds to me, like a valuable service for families, I know a lot of them are just especially if they have a child with special needs. They’re just struggling to keep their head above water. So this sounds like a real, a real significant boost.
Denise Braithwaite 1:50
And we do have we do have a lot of customers who, to your point, have children on one end and parents on the other. So they sometimes they hire me to take care of their parents home? Uh huh. Parents are just too old to do it.
Emmalou Penrod 2:07
So what we call the sandwich generation, they’re exactly caring for children, but also aging parents. Exactly.
Denise Braithwaite 2:15
And they like that, because you know, I give them personal service. When I work for family, I get to know the family, I asked them questions, how many kids do you have? How do you use your yard because that impacts what types of products and stuff I use, if I know you have young children and so forth, oh, I really give that personal service and they like that,
Emmalou Penrod 2:39
I can see why they would this is more than just, you know, I’ve seen some yard care, where they just kind of come clean and they’re gone. And they may maybe never really interact with the family, I can see the value of this.
Denise Braithwaite 2:56
Absolutely. And they really value that I have customers who give me their house keys, they’ll just leave and they’ll just say just pull the door close when you leave.
Emmalou Penrod 3:05
And that’s a level of trust.
Denise Braithwaite 3:07
They get very comfortable with me they like the fact that I’m I’m a woman running traditionally male business. Yes. Trust me to take care of the elderly parents and and their properties.
Emmalou Penrod 3:23
I can see the advantages of being a woman in this traditionally male business because I you know, you would be more sensitive, more aware, more in tune with family needs. And you have had personal experience with caring for parents.
Denise Braithwaite 3:46
Yes, as a matter of fact, back to my family’s home where I grew up. And my mother passed away a couple of years ago and left the house to me and my brother. And my brother has lives in New Jersey and has no interest in moving back. So I ended up having to refinance the house to buy him out. Which then caused me to have a higher mortgage. Yeah, I’m committed to keeping the house my mother and my grandmother purchased this house together in 1965. It’s a two family you know, mother daughter upstairs downstairs type. They purchased it in 1965. And for two women from my family’s from St. Thomas US Virgin Islands, women to come at that time and purchase a house on their own and manage to hold on to it all these years. I just feel a burden to keep going. Because the family’s home. It was always the place where everybody knew to come because that’s where mommy was and it’s what held here and everything.
Emmalou Penrod 4:55
They must have been amazing women strong and committed. To do that, as you said in 1965.
Denise Braithwaite 5:05
My mother and my grandmother, and I call it Caribbean women, but it’s not just Caribbean women, but they were hard workers. And, you know, I got into landscaping, I mean, I have a master’s degree in Industrial labor relations. And I was a human resource manager for many years. asked me, How did you leave that to go do what’s considered menial labor, you know, cleaning up yards and people’s houses. The way I was raised, there was no, there is no such thing is menial labor, you do what you have to do to take care of your family, and take care of your needs. Met, what type of work it was, so there’s nothing beneath you. And that’s the way I was raised. It’s gone back to that now. And it’s given me a passion for encouraging, especially women to do what you need to do to take care of your family, whether it’s educational options available for your children, um, maintaining being an advocate for your family for your home. You do what you have to do this type of legal, you know what I mean?
Emmalou Penrod 6:17
Yes, yes, I have it. I love those comments of you don’t consider anything beneath you. You do what needs to be done to care for your family. I love that. And this was what you were taught. This is your family heritage.
Denise Braithwaite 6:35
Yes.
Emmalou Penrod 6:37
And by two amazing women. So you grew up with your grandmother, your mother,
Denise Braithwaite 6:45
Just my grandmother and my mother. My mother was not very patient with the whole marriage thing. So she got married in like 1960 had me in 61 and was done with marriage by 63. It was not her thing. I was raised with her and my grandmother, here in Brooklyn.
Emmalou Penrod 7:11
Tell me, you said you have a master’s degree. It sounds like a sacrifice you had to make to pursue something you wanted?
Denise Braithwaite 7:24
Well, there again, to my point of doing whatever you need to do, um, I got married at 20 at the age of 20. And it took me 13 years to complete my bachelor’s degree. I worked a full time job. I had two children, a husband and a house. I was determined to get my education because I had started it before I was married, go to school, or evenings, weekends, I could fit in a class, I would take a class. And then my husband at the time was also going to school. So what we would do would be whoever registered first would go Monday, Wednesday, and the other person would take Tuesday Thursday, because that’s the way classes were structured in City University.
Emmalou Penrod 8:15
Yes.
Denise Braithwaite 8:16
So we did that for a couple of years. And then he started complaining that when it was his night to stay with the kids, he couldn’t get his homework done. After hearing that for a while, I stopped going to let him finish his bachelor’s degree. Okay, I’ll sacrifice. As he graduated, I went right back to school. The one, two classes, the most I would take would be three. But I usually only took two, because I had a faculty to take care of and go into school is not just sitting in the classroom, you got to have time to do the work. So I would do that. And like I said, I got an associate’s degree in health services. And I went on and got my bachelor’s degree in behavioral psychology, decided to go get a master’s degree in human resources. That turned out to be a good program. It was a three year program at City University at BU. My kids went to school, they kind of got my degree with me. Sometimes I would have to take them to school with me at night because my husband was in the military, the guard, so he was away quite a bit. And I would pick them up from school with me to college at night, downtown in Manhattan. And we’d sit in the back of the lecture hall, I’d have one kid on one side and one on the other. I’d have all this snacks separated out for them. And they would just sit in the room sit in the back of the lecture hall with me and do their homework. And when class was finished, people would say we didn’t even know those kids were here are supposed to know they were here. And at that time, my daughter might have been five and my son might have been around eight, nine. Got my master’s degree with me.
Emmalou Penrod 10:00
Wow, what a powerful example to them. Now, did they both go on and get college degrees?
Denise Braithwaite 10:07
Yes, my son got a degree in political science at Hampton University. And he came out and went into the police academy. And, oh, he’s a lieutenant in the New York Police Department. daughter got her PhD at 27. And now she’s a Doctorate of research in at Columbia University.
Emmalou Penrod 10:32
Wow. So you taught them not only this strong work ethic, but also the value of education and love of learning.
Denise Braithwaite 10:43
Yep. And you make it happen. You don’t let excuses stop you. You know, it’s it’s a challenge. It’s not easy. And I was like for all intents and purposes, I was a single parent, because my husband was away.
Emmalou Penrod 10:55
Yes.
Denise Braithwaite 10:57
If you stay focused on what you need to do, and get it done. And and I was fortunate, I worked at a college so I had information, educational information. And that was another thing I did for my kids, which I strongly advise parents to do is to be that advocate for their children. I lived in a school district that was not performing to my standards. And when I say that, I mean, I would pull up their reading and math scores for the year because they would publish them every year. And test in my school district where I lived 40% of the students reading at grade level or doing math at that grade level. To me, 40% is not a good number,
Emmalou Penrod 11:43
No
Denise Braithwaite 11:46
So I would go and find the districts that had, you know, 90%, 93%, that to me was satisfactory. And it’s fight with the Board of Ed. Because those were not in my district. I felt strongly that this is public education, I should have a right to send my children where I feel they will get the best education to explain to me that the school in my district was getting a new principal, and they were going to be turning the whole school around. And I said, I only have one opportunity to educate my children, I don’t have time for you guys to wait and turn the school around. I want them in this school in this school district. And it helped that, you know, I’m a minority in that area. So I kind of feel like they needed more minorities in those better school districts. So that might have helped, they never told me that, but I kind of felt that. So I was able to get my children into a school district that them with a better foundation. Better to go to college,
Emmalou Penrod 12:52
You know, but my thought is, if you hadn’t first of all researched it, and identified the school setting you felt was best for your children, and then advocated for them, it wouldn’t have happened at all.
Denise Braithwaite 13:12
No, if they would have gone to the school that the city says this is your zone school, pack them up and send them to school, around the corner from the house. And that’s that’s what most parents tend to do.
Emmalou Penrod 13:23
It is Yeah,
Denise Braithwaite 13:25
Yeah. They follow whatever the mainstream. I mean, I remember when they came up with what was considered the early charter schools, and they used to call them early education programs. And it was specialized niche schools. One in my area and I told my husband you get up there and you wait on that line at 6am. In the morning, we are getting our son in school. He was like, What? I said get up and go now.
Emmalou Penrod 13:54
And that’s what it takes that type of proactive make it happen.
Denise Braithwaite 14:02
You cannot be very passive when it comes to raising your children because only you at the level that you need their kid to be. And you know, I hear people talk about children with special needs and and I kind of the time because to me all children have special needs. Yes. Our responsibility to identify what those needs are, and and fight to get them the help that they need. And I don’t even say it’s not even help. It’s just the resources that they need. Yes. I don’t like to label children because I went through that with my son in school and they tried to label him and put him in special ed because he failed one set. We didn’t do well on one standardized test to go to the school and say no, you will not put him in special ed because he didn’t do well on one test. Are you kidding me? Feel good that day? Yeah. The kind of fighting that you have to you have to stay on top of.
Emmalou Penrod 14:57
Oh, it is Yes, it is. I think you know, I, and even though schools are run by people who mean well, they may be committed to education and to children, but they don’t know your child. And like you said, One low test scores. Yeah. But that doesn’t that’s really not significant. Like you said he just could have not been paying attention that day. Not felt Yeah.
Denise Braithwaite 15:26
And if you if you’re not on top, on top of those little nuances of what goes on in the school, you they just do whatever they want to do. To your point, they may be have, they may have the best intentions, but they also have limited resources.
Emmalou Penrod 15:44
Yes. And, yeah, they’re coming from the standpoint of what’s going to be best for the school. You know, how can we fit in with our program? Absolutely. Absolutely.
Denise Braithwaite 15:58
And I’m a big believer in you know, the squeaky wheel gets the oil.
Emmalou Penrod 16:02
yes.
Denise Braithwaite 16:03
If you have limited resources, I want to make sure that I get my share. Yes, if you’re not careful, I’ll take the share of the child whose parent is not paying attention to if I can get that chair with the resources as well. Because I’m like, I’m like Miss Pac Man. I’m like, Hey, we have to do this. And you have, when they see you coming to the school, they stand up and take attention, because they know that when you come in what you’re talking about, you’re respected. You’ve done, you’re respectful. Yes. And you are presenting your case, as though you were a lawyer?
Emmalou Penrod 16:43
Yes. A lot of parents are afraid of being labeled a problem parent or “that parent.” But as you said, You’re not, you know, you’re you’re being respectful. You’re just stating facts, advocating for your child, which is every parent’s responsibility and making the system better. You know, they’ve produced too much more effective graduates due to your advocacy than they would have otherwise.
Denise Braithwaite 17:16
Yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s really rough. And you know, I come from, you know, when I was in elementary school, I mean, we’re talking about the 70s. I remember, and I was in what’s considered, I lived in what’s considered self worth, I wouldn’t say worse, but not so good areas of Brooklyn, you know, the whole East New York, Bed Stuy type area. If you’re familiar with Brooklyn, I grew up when it was not that nice scenario. Yeah. I can still recall having very dedicated teachers who really just worked with us, and they came to the school and they realized the handicap that the students had just coming from the environments that they came from. Yes, these teachers, I mean, they would stay after school. They’d meet you on the weekend, if you needed special help. I mean, I’m not that connected with schools anymore since my children have grown. Yeah. I don’t know if that still exists. You still have teachers with that, that commitment? And I don’t know if it exists, it’s hard.
Emmalou Penrod 18:22
It is, it is. I have met some, but I, you know, I don’t know how common they are. But yes, that is what it takes.
Denise Braithwaite 18:32
That’s that. So I don’t know, you know, just you just have to stay on top of and and I know, it’s hard because you work. And and we are very focused on making money because we have to be granted we do have to be, yes. We like roof over our head and food in our mouth, you know, that kind of thing. But also like to make sure that you are not putting your priorities in the wrong order. For example, I mean, does your children have to have the latest and greatest pair of sneakers out there? They benefit more from you working a little less hours and putting some more energy into their well being and so forth.
Emmalou Penrod 19:16
Oh, that is an excellent point. You’re asking.
Denise Braithwaite 19:19
Yeah, so you gotta do it. Yeah, it’s it’s, it’s important. And it’s also good for your children to see at. Mom and Dad work hard for this money. And we’re not we’re trying to be judicious in how we spend it. Yes. You can’t have everything that everybody has. I used to say I’m here to provide your needs, not wants. Ah, I would I would tell them that and I tell the joke all the time. For example, when they wanted a pair of sneakers like, you know, at that time back in the 80s Air Jordans were the popular thing.
Emmalou Penrod 20:00
Yes, I remember,
Denise Braithwaite 20:02
Yeah, they will go for like $150 a pair. And I don’t even spend that much money for a pair of sneakers for myself and I have a job. What do you think I’m going to spend that kind of money for you don’t get my kids pricing. I used to say a pair of sneakers, spending $50 on them. And that includes tax pants. I’m only spending $40 on an ad include sex and I and they knew what my parameters were. Yes. Take them to the store. Mia see the $50 in my hand, let them pick whatever sneakers that that they wanted. And was two cents more than $50. You better have that two cents, because I’m not paying it. Yeah, as a result of that my kids always had jobs from the age of 14, they had jobs, both of them, because they wanted all that stuff. mom wasn’t buying it. So they worked both of them. And then if I buy what you want you work for it. Yeah, it is. They appreciate it. It’s so much more.
Emmalou Penrod 21:05
That’s true.
Denise Braithwaite 21:08
When my son bought his first pair of Air Jordans, you should see that boy came home, took the sneakers off, wipe them down, put them back in the box, put on his old sneakers and went outside to play. He wouldn’t have cared less.
Emmalou Penrod 21:23
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
Denise Braithwaite 21:25
And it’s all about the lessons you teach them. The sneakers were inconsequential. But the lesson that they learn that money is hard to come by you have if you have to trade time for money. Yes, someone appreciation. And that’s another lesson that I like kids to realize, because then they appreciate all your efforts.
Emmalou Penrod 21:45
Yes, they do. And and I love that I mean, just teaching them the difference between needs and wants. How many adults? Do you know that still haven’t learned that?
Denise Braithwaite 21:56
Exactly. Because of it. That’s it, and no one took the time to train them with that, because we all have confines we all have limitations placed on us, either by society or by ourselves. So you have to learn to live within those confines,
Emmalou Penrod 22:13
yes,
Denise Braithwaite 22:14
They end up in credit card debt, and all these kinds of things because they’re living beyond their means. Yes. And that’s very important, especially when you’re a single parent or parent with a family that has some challenges. You have to be you have to be mindful of those things. And the lessons that go with that money.
Emmalou Penrod 22:35
Oh, yes, they, you know, statistics show that, you know, it’s expensive raising a child. But raising a child with special needs can be three to four times as expensive with all of the additional costs. And so yes, many must be carefully managed. and teaching them this work ethic to set those goals just you know, the priorities, and zero nm and work for them be willing to work hard. Nothing is beneath them. Well, I know I have listeners in New York, I’m not sure if they’re in Brooklyn. So give us how do we get? How do they get ahold of you? They want this personal service? How do they do that?
Denise Braithwaite 23:20
They can send me an email at D as in dog B as in boy, go green@gmail.com. Or they can call me or send me a text message. And my number is 347-423-9149. And my webpage is in development right now since I just you know change the focus of the company. So those are the two best ways to reach me right now.
Emmalou Penrod 23:55
All right, well, I’m going to put that email address and phone number on my page with this podcast episode. And when you do have that website, let me know. And I will add that I love what you’re doing.
Denise Braithwaite 24:11
I truly have a truly do have a passion for empowering women. And I say women but I don’t mean that I wouldn’t I don’t want to see men in power. But I have a passion for empowering women to kind of have it all, maybe all at the same time. But have a plan. So that you can, in the end, achieve as much as you desire for yourself. You know, but at least you have a roadmap and that’s what we need. We get so mired down with the daily struggles that we don’t take the time to have long term plans for ourselves. You go step by step and what ends up happening is the same day to day tasks that occupied your time, the year before that, and the year before that occupy your time this year, and you weren’t happy, or it wasn’t fulfilling when when you were doing it to him three years ago, it’s not going to be fulfilling this year, unless you take that time and say, let me figure out what I really want. Do I need to get there? And what resources do I need. And that can be anything from losing weight to a job or finding alternatives, what I prefer is even better than getting a better job, finding alternatives to making money. Outside of this traditional nine to five jobs are designed to keep you coming back to work. Yeah, it’s not designed to help you get ahead, want to get ahead, you have to have other things going on. So though, when I was a human resource manager, I ran this landscaping company, I’ve been doing this for 10 years, right? In the landscaping company, on the weekends, and in the evenings, real estate investor. So I buy real estate properties primarily in Pennsylvania. And I have property managers who take care of them. So I don’t have to really be hands on taking care of it. And I just monitor the property managers, right. So you know, the properties are affordable, forget New York City, you can buy anything in New York City. But as a single woman, I did the next best thing, I went to the next area where there were properties I could afford. Just started buying one and then two, I buy multifamily buildings, you know, and I make sure that one apartment can always pay the rent, they sustain themselves. And you know, you try to make a profit with that. But that’s just another way of you know, having additional income, you got to have multiple streams coming in. And I’m a big advocate of that. Wonderful. I love to to every time I have a chance to talk to women. I’m always talking about that and and about how we can partner How can I help you? How can you help me? What can we do together?
Emmalou Penrod 27:13
Yes,
Denise Braithwaite 27:14
That’s my focus.
Emmalou Penrod 27:16
I love it. And I agree, I have multiple streams, and you have many interests, many talents.
Denise Braithwaite 27:24
You know, I don’t miss not working full time. It’s a lot more work. It’s true. You work harder for yourself than you do for anyone else.
Emmalou Penrod 27:33
Yes. I’m sure you’re putting in the hours. I have no doubt.
Denise Braithwaite 27:37
Uh-huh. What is that you trade in a 40 hour week for an 80 hour week?
Emmalou Penrod 27:41
Yep.
Denise Braithwaite 27:43
It’s fulfilling though, because you are doing what you want to do.
Emmalou Penrod 27:47
Yes,
Denise Braithwaite 27:48
Someone else is making you do whether you agree with it like it, whether you feel like it’s paying you enough money. If I feel that I’m making enough money, then that’s my choice to say, you got to get it together. What else do you need to do to bring in the money, I can’t go to my boss and say I want to raise? Yeah. And that’s just very empowering to know, you know, pass or fail, win or lose in your hands.
Emmalou Penrod 28:16
Yeah, you’re in control. And from what you said earlier, you You not only set goals for yourself, you set goals for the type of education you wanted for your children. Parents need to remember that that is their place their role to set goals for the type of education they want for their children, and then work to make it happen.
Denise Braithwaite 28:38
And another thing I would encourage parents to do is to spend time and energy in exposure to a child’s awareness, expose them to different things. is a great thing to do with two kids that see other parts of the world. Let them see what how the other half lives as much as possible. Or even if you don’t have a lot of money. There are so many things I know here in New York, there are so many places that you can take your children on a limited budget on a Saturday, just you know, that gets them out of the area gets them to see new things and different people and it awakens their thoughts. But they do. If you don’t know it exists, you can’t aspire to it. Yeah, yeah. That’s the greatest thing to just take time with your children and expose them to the world. Yeah, your financial ability.
Emmalou Penrod 29:39
I remember my parents would invite people to dinner and we met some of the most interesting people and talked on some of the most very topics that we would not have just something simple like that.
Denise Braithwaite 29:54
And it even sparks your interest, right? If you want to talk about it. Now. You’re aware that this Something like this out here. Let me go find out more about it.
Emmalou Penrod 30:02
Yes.
Denise Braithwaite 30:04
But that doesn’t happen if all they do is come home and play video games and watch TV, and you’re working 50-60 hours a week, and the children are raising themselves.
Emmalou Penrod 30:16
Yeah. Well, you were working and going to school and yet still spent, you included your children in what you were doing.
Denise Braithwaite 30:28
Yeah, it’s true. And I was fortunate. I worked for City University, and worked close to home and close to their school. And I stayed there for many years. I didn’t make much money. But it did for many years, because it was a college environment. And the schedules were conducive to schools. Yes. So I was able to maybe be off when they were off. times I could pick them up from school after school, I would take my lunch late, like 230 them up from school, either drop them off at after school, or sometimes they came back to work with me.
Emmalou Penrod 31:06
Yeah.
Denise Braithwaite 31:06
They were allowed in the faculty lounge. Yeah, work and stuff. But that interaction, you know, you have some of the best conversations with your kids in the car. You’re driving from here to there. Yes. say,
Emmalou Penrod 31:22
Oh, I agree. I agree. And we talk about balancing and doing it all. And that’s how you do it.
Denise Braithwaite 31:28
That’s it.
Emmalou Penrod 31:29
So it’s not so much time as commitment.
Denise Braithwaite 31:35
That’s it and and knowing what comes first. I mean, we know we need to make money, as I said, but you know, a small window of opportunity to raise your children and to make an impact on their lives. to waste that opportunity. Find every inch every opportunity you can to spend time with them to listen to them. And just be present, not just be there, be present.
Emmalou Penrod 31:59
Yes, you have available mentally and emotionally present. Yes, yes. I agree. Oh, Denise, thank you so much. You’ve just have shared so much of your wisdom and experience.
Denise Braithwaite 32:17
Thank you for inviting me. This is new, a new experience for me. Yeah. It was nice. Thank you.
Emmalou Penrod 32:25
You are welcome.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai