Ihave to give Tara credit — she has wonderful timing.
Last Tuesday, my partner in crime underwent a hysterectomy. The procedure went perfectly. The recovery … well, this is where things got interesting.
With a small staff — she and I work full-time, and her mom and middle son work part-time — losing someone for any period of time presents multiple challenges. But like I opened with, her timing was perfect.
It goes without saying that Tara didn’t come to the office last week. She’s been relegated to couch duty, nestled “comfortably” in pillows and covered with blankets. Her living room has been transformed into a recovery room. We made the decision before her surgery that the office would be closed July 3-4. Makes sense, considering it was a holiday weekend.
Before the weekend came, however, we had a paper to put out. Wednesday — deadline day — was our first big hurdle. Not having Tara around meant we lost a set of eyes to proof the paper. That would usually mean it was up to Carol and me, but, as she usually does, Tara was thinking ahead and had told her two boys they needed to look over pages that day as well.
I was in the office for a time on the 3rd, but there was no customer traffic. Same with the 4th, only I spent most of my holiday covering Currie’s 4th of July celebration.
Two days without Tara down. Then came the weekend, which saw me in Balaton pretty much all day. But it was the weekend, and we’re closed anyway.
Basically, the office was dead for four of the first five days of Tara’s recovery.
Then Monday came and we were back to business. This is when I got nervous. It’s been well-chronicled than I am nearly useless in the front office. I can answer a phone and take a subscription, sell a newspaper, ring up some retail items, maybe make a copy to two, but that’s about it. Thankfully, Ben was here to man the front office and close out the till, but that was a slow day, too, so he was able to begin setting up the equipment for our new podcast (coming to a computer near you soon).
Tara also made a cameo appearance that day as well. She worked for about an hour or so to take care of some of the business that I know nothing about, like payroll.
On Tuesday, Carol returned to work to cover front office duties, and Tara made another guest appearance (it’s hard to keep a good woman down).
Tara was in the office for a time again Wednesday for our second post-surgery deadline day, as she continued to slowly work her way back into the flow, but she’s not anywhere near the point where she can put in a full day.
The problem with that is, Tara is a doer and not being able to do things bugs her. Plus, as a business owner, she knows the wheels of a business never stop. They might slow down once in awhile, but they never stop.
In sports, there’s a thing called playing in pain. For Tara, it’s working in pain. Someday, she’ll be back at full strength. Until then, don’t worry, Tara, we got your back.
