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ID:
2025-03-20-conversation-with-meme-cassidy
Participants:

Conversation with MeMe Cassidy: Faith, Business, and Personal History

Date: March 20, 2025 Location: The Villages, FL - Cassidy residence Participants: Gary, Johnny (JRAP), MeMe Cassidy

Summary​

This conversation with MeMe Cassidy took place during a board game (likely backgammon or similar dice game) and covered various aspects of her life, including her role as a Eucharistic minister in the Catholic Church, her contributions to the family seafood business, her artistic interests, and elements of her personal history including her previous marriage and experience with postpartum depression.

Key Topics​

Role as Eucharistic Minister​

  • Serves as a Eucharistic minister at her Catholic church
  • Follows specific protocols for handling communion
  • Has special procedures if communion is dropped (using a special cloth)
  • Sits with other Eucharistic ministers rather than family during service
  • Serves different sections of the church on rotation
  • Described feeling reserved when in the church preparation room with people she doesn't know well

Business Experience​

  • Handled all bookkeeping for the family's seafood business
  • Collected money from restaurant clients
  • Described herself as "giving good phone" - being polite yet persistent with collections
  • Shared a story about a difficult collection where she was locked inside a restaurant and had to call the police, eventually resulting in the restaurant being shut down
  • Had to pursue legal action against another client who skipped town after a judge gave them 30 days to pay

Artistic Interests and Skills​

  • Created chalk murals in high school with her twin sister Becky
  • Teachers would ask them to draw holiday murals on chalkboards
  • Recently made chicken pot pies as Christmas gifts
  • A friend in The Villages offered to financially back her if she wanted to sell them commercially
  • Has made approximately 50 quilts for family members, including personalized quilts for grandchildren last Christmas
  • Expressed that cooking, once possibly enjoyable, became a chore after years of cooking for a household of men with little help

Personal History​

  • Had her first child at age 18-19
  • Was previously married to a man named John for almost six years
  • Experienced what was then called a "nervous breakdown" but was likely postpartum depression that wasn't recognized as such at the time
  • Maintains a positive relationship with her first ex-husband - they express love and respect for each other despite the divorce
  • Strongly believes in not speaking negatively about exes, especially for the children's benefit
  • Advises her sons (who have both been divorced) to maintain positive relationships with their exes

Entrepreneurial Discussion​

  • Johnny presented an idea for biodegradable "nature pods" (hemp coffins) as an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional caskets
  • The concept includes the idea that human bodies could contribute to nature through decomposition when not in metal/plastic caskets
  • Also discussed a concept for memorial hemp blankets/quilts where loved ones could contribute sections
  • MeMe acknowledged these were interesting ideas, though noted she and Tom plan to be cremated

Notable Quotes​

  • "I can give good phone" (regarding her collection calls for the business)
  • "Don't ever talk negatively about your ex... They're going to be around you the rest of your life"
  • "I started cooking when I was 13 years old, and I'm tired of cooking"
  • "When I'm in a room like that [church preparation room] and I'm by myself and I don't know these people... I'm quiet"

Follow-up Opportunities​

  • MeMe's quilting expertise could connect with the hemp memorial blanket concept Johnny proposed
  • Her experience managing business finances aligns with Tom's interest in finding technology to simplify financial management
  • Her artistic background provides additional dimension to understanding her perspective and interests