Left: Denise as a junior high school cheerleader; Denise's parents. Previous spread from left: Denise at Opening Night, 2017; with her daughter, Christina; as an elementary student; son Christopher and daughter Christina; Denise with her grandchildren, Taylor and David.
Wow—so you didn’t really like it but still lasted for over 10 years... Well, I had my family to think about. We do things we don’t enjoy to ensure those we love are taken care of. When Southwestern Bell divested, I decided to take the voluntary termination package. What was the big plan after working for the same company for so long? I decided that I was going to go to NYC to work. My children were in fourth and fifth grades and I guess I thought it would be a different experience. It was—but not in a way I had hoped. I sent the kids back to Texas quite quickly. I stayed and worked but it really wasn’t the right place for me. I returned to Houston after a year. When a job opened up at Foley’s department store in the buying office, I knew it was the job that would help me resettle back home. It was Guyla [Guyla Pircher, HGO’s late director of special events] who hired me to work as her administrative assistant in the buying office. Was it good to be back? It was, and Guyla and I hit it off immediately. She left Foley’s and went to work for the French retailer, Auchan Hypermarket. After a few months, she called me to join her. We worked there for about eight years. It was a great time and we loved working together. So coming to HGO from there isn’t an obvious move…! I still had a couple of more moves to make before coming to HGO. I left and went to work for Best Buy as a merchandise manager for five years. From there, I worked as an assistant store manager for Michael’s. It was there that I realized I was not really cut out for retail anymore, so when Guyla called me from her new job at HGO it was a pretty easy decision, really. I guess that Guyla had just arrived and was starting to build her team? That’s right. I believe she was here a year before I got here, and I was very happy to come and join her again. We built something very special, and since we lost Guyla, we have continued to build the team into a really strong unit. I have loved working at HGO mainly because of the truly fantastic colleagues and chairs that I spend time with. Having been in the corporate world and in sales most of my life, I can say that HGO is a very special place indeed. 60
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