NORTH'S COMMUNITY LEADER
The Making of a
Diamond A Woman's Journey from Profound Grief To Leading Other Women to Fulfillment By Dirk R. Hobbs, MS, IABC
R
ecall eighth grade geology class, learning how diamonds are created in the extreme forces deep inside the earth. The sheer heat and pressure these rare minerals are formed within are nothing short of mind-boggling. And to think, something so unique and beautiful emerges from these seemingly unbearable circumstances. As I sat with Leith McHugh, it occurred to me, I was sitting with a human version of a diamond, which, or rather, who, had been shaped by a number of external and internal forces that are anything but common. What is also apparent upon meeting her, is her willingness to just tell it like it is. There is no pretense, or superficiality about her. In fact, she credits the people, the moments, and events that have shaped who she is today – a mother, happily married woman, and highly sought-after transformational life coach for women. It is very obvious, there is something exceptional about how she’s wired and how she has navigated what for many, would have been enough adversity for three lifetimes. Make no mistake, she’s fully cognizant that, like everyone else, she’s a work in progress. She is disarmingly honest and filled with life. But, she’s the first to say that she has been refined by life
in such a way that has made her an authentic communicator of her own story – the good, the hard, and all things in between - which she uses to inspire and direct others who are experiencing life’s valleys and deserts. Leith’s journey began in 1971 as a Kansas girl. Mom was the most consistent adult figure in her childhood. Her birth father, was largely out of the picture, though she maintained some relationship with him. Paul - Leith’s step-father was a constant fatherly figure for her and it is he who would ultimately be the one to walk her down the aisle in her wedding to husband, Aaron. But by far, the person who has had the most profound impact in her life overall, is her mother. A nurse anesthetist by trade, her mom was managing the realities of single-motherhood in the 1970s. In fact, her growing up was what Leith describes as “beautifully complicated”. Her mom, half-sister, and Leith, did their best to be a modern family coming out of the age of postVietnam War, free love and peace days, into the turbulent 70s. As with any family, love and pain were both present. “With the benefit of some years behind me, I can see as an adult looking back on my childhood, she [mom] was doing the best she could with the tools that she had - trying to hold jobs, keep her family moving forward, and have some life of her own.”
North by Colorado Media Group 63
