What Lou Kachigian Gave Me
TulsaKids founder Lou Kachigian passed away on January 3, 2018.
Most of us never know the impact we may have on another person’s life. Lou Kachigian, who passed away on Wednesday, Jan. 3, touched my life by offering me a job.
More than 20 years ago, Lou invited me to talk with her about editing TulsaKids Magazine. We met at the Marquette playground, sat on a bench and talked. I didn’t know Lou at the time, but had been doing freelance writing and some teaching. She was enthusiastic, fun and self-deprecating. Evidently, she liked my writing. With three young children, I was busy enough, but Lou opened a door for me. I walked through it, and I’m still here almost 25 years later.
The office where I started wasn’t the first TulsaKids location, but it’s interesting to note that it was in the building on Brady Street, currently occupied by Glacier Confection and other shops in the Tulsa Arts District before that existed.
Lou was creative and had big plans for TulsaKids. Before she realized that there were parenting publications in many cities around the U.S., she thought she might be invited to go on Oprah to talk about this unique publication niche. That never happened, but I always thought that Lou would have been entertaining in an interview by Oprah.
Regardless, Lou helped start a product for area families that is still in publication many years later. TulsaKids has grown and changed over the years, but Lou was in on building the foundation.
When Lou gave me the chance to become editor of TulsaKids, I was well aware that she was taking a chance. I have always remembered how that felt and have tried to be helpful in similar ways to other people throughout my life because of Lou’s support of me. It may have been a small thing, but not to me. It shows how a small gesture can, in fact, change the trajectory of a person’s life. I only worked with Lou for a few months before she sold the publication, but I will always be grateful for the opportunity that she gave me.
Read Betty Casey’s interview with Lou Kachigan from our July 2012 issue here.
