Rebuilding Again & Again: What Perseverance Taught Me About Chasing My Dream
From struggle to success: A Tacoma historian's journey of resilience and rediscovering her passion after decades of setbacks.
Rebuilding, Again and Again: What Perseverance Taught Me About Chasing My Dreams
By: Patty Rivers Mannie, Tacoma Historian & Entrepreneur — September 2026
There is a particular kind of strength that comes from having to start over, not once, but several times, and choosing, each time, to keep going. This has been the mantra of my life. As a proud fourth-generation Tacoman, mother, grandmother, wife, and entrepreneur, I spent years simply putting one foot in front of the other before any of this felt certain.
Starting Over as a Single Mother
I raised my three children as a single mother, often working two jobs at once just to keep our household afloat. There is no glamorous way to describe what that season of life was like. It meant long days, tight budgets, and very little room for anything beyond getting my kids fed, caring for them, and raising them with solid values.
I didn't have the luxury of pausing to ask what I wanted out of a career. I simply worked as a bank teller and eventually in the marketing field, struggling to survive. One of my friends at the time said, "Patty, if only one thing could change in your life—if you had a boyfriend to make you happier, if you received child support, or if you earned more at your job—this would certainly help you."
Was this a caring friend? Or a smack in the face? Of course, it was difficult to find a man who wanted a committed relationship with three kids in tow. My job as a bank teller paid only $7.99 an hour, and it was terribly difficult to move up in the bank without a college education. Also, my former husband quit his good-paying job at the Post Office just so he would NOT have to pay child support. Can you imagine??
What I learned in those years wasn't taught in a classroom. It was learned at my kitchen table late at night, in the gap between one job ending and the next one starting, and in the quiet resolve it takes to show up exhausted and do it anyway. Single motherhood asked more of me than I thought I had to give. And somehow, difficulty kept finding me.
Finding My Footing in Marketing
It was in the marketing field that I found a role that let me combine strategy with creativity. I wrote marketing plans, developed strategies to assist national companies, planned community events, and attended meetings with business leaders in the Chamber of Commerce arena. I traveled as a businesswoman, gaining even more self-confidence and developing lifelong business relationships with entrepreneurs and leaders in my community.
When the Ground Shifted Beneath Me
Twice in my career, I was laid off from jobs I had poured myself into. One of the most rewarding jobs I had was as the marketing director of a 1.1-million-square-foot shopping mall. A job I LOVED! Planning community events, creating marketing plans for national retailers, and traveling to a national marketing convention were highlights of this fabulous job. I was finally earning a good wage that allowed me to pay my bills, raise my children, and even earn enough to buy a house. Unfortunately, I was laid off from this fun, rewarding job when the mall was sold. I was devastated and didn't know how I would survive.
The second most well-loved job I had was as the marketing administrator for a family-owned business that owned properties in three states. I traveled to each location, trained the general managers on the importance of making sales calls, worked with national vendors, created, produced, and bought media for twenty properties, and wrote a specific marketing plan for each property. For a second time in my career, I was laid off when several of these properties went up for sale.
Each time I was laid off, I cried and cried. It felt less like a setback and more like the floor giving way. These layoffs didn't just cost me a paycheck; they shook my sense of worth, especially as the one holding a family together. I remember the uncertainty of those periods vividly: the scramble to figure out what came next, the fear of not knowing how the bills would be paid, and the quiet determination that carried me through.
Through much pain and perseverance, I built the confidence to open my own marketing firm. Running a business as a woman who had already weathered single motherhood and career setbacks felt wonderful. I wasn't just working for a paycheck anymore. I was building something that was entirely mine, on my own terms. After two years of working hard for a variety of clients, such as restaurant owners, authors, medical providers, entrepreneurs, community groups, and attorneys, I had to close my marketing firm. I simply was not earning enough income to keep my marketing firm going.
Coming Home to My Passion
In 1976, during the American Bicentennial, I attended a Tour of Homes in Tacoma, and it planted a seed that would take decades to fully bloom. I fell in love with the stories embedded in our city's historic houses: who built them, who lived in them, what they witnessed over the years, and how these people helped build the Tacoma we see today.
As a single mother, I desperately wanted to do something fun for myself. Even though there wasn't much money, I hired a babysitter and attended monthly evening meetings hosted by the Tacoma Historical Society. At these meetings, I learned so much more about Tacoma's fascinating history. The elders in this group shared their unique stories of growing up in Tacoma, stories I cherish to this day.
Today, my lifelong passion for Tacoma's history has developed into a proud business ownership journey—an entrepreneur just like my grandmother was in Tacoma over 75 years ago. I proudly own and operate Tacoma History Comes Alive, where I provide historical presentations to a variety of businesses, civic groups, and senior living communities. I also work with homeowners to research the stories behind their own historic properties, which can be fascinating as I discover people in Tacoma I have never heard of. After decades of working jobs that paid the bills, I now spend my days doing work where I research and share the unique stories of Tacoma's fascinating past.
Words of Wisdom for Women Chasing Their Dreams
If you are a single mother working two jobs, wondering if things will ever feel steady, I wish you hope. If you have been laid off and are questioning your worth or what your next path will be, you are simply between chapters. I have lived both of those realities, more than once, and I must say: hardship does not have the final word.
What carried me through was never a five-year plan. It was showing up, adapting, and refusing to let go of the things that mattered to me: my faith, my children, and surviving through the difficult times. Your dream does not disappear just because life gets hard. It waits patiently for you, the way mine did for nearly fifty years, until you finally have the space to chase it.
It is building the foundation for what comes next.
