It’s time to look back at 2023! The good, the bad and the ugly – and we had it all.
January was all about the cats! We lost Sylvester on January 19th and we thought that our hearts would break. It was a very rough time for us adjusting to being a 2-cat family. Almost a year later and we’re still not over it, but we have awesome memories of that little snickerdoodle! Having older cats is difficult, especially when illnesses start creeping in.
February, we celebrated Greg and Bear’s birthdays! That meant baking the giant German Chocolate cake for the umpteenth time! More technology for Greg and we were also VERY late in taking down our outside Christmas lights! Yes, we were THOSE people this year!
March had me trying to relearn crocheting. I got a step-by-step online crochet pattern and tried to learn how to make a tiny penguin. I got lost and it’s still in a bag somewhere in the spare room! Maybe I’ll take it up again sometime… We decided to have railings installed on our newly formed front porch and all the stuff was delivered while we waited for the work to be done. I helped a friend move out of her apartment. Also started thinking about my garden and what I was going to plant this year and did a bit of early spring weeding, although the ground was still pretty hard.
April our oven quit, and we had to buy a new one. There was that embarrassing moment when they pulled out the old one and I had to clean behind it – a tremendous amount of dirt, dust balls, cat toys, grime and grit! How embarrassing! But, the new oven works well and we’re happy with it. I tackled the penguin again but didn’t get much further. It was Lent so that meant making hot cross buns – yum! Got some more weeding done and slowly tackled a few more beds and got my fairy/gnome garden out. Then, in early April, Greg was out taking his laundry to the office and doing his usual exercising by walking around the park, and on his way home he wasn’t concentrating properly and slammed into a road sign, cutting open his head. When he got home, he was covered in blood, freaking me out, so we rushed to Urgent Care where they cleaned him up and he got 14 staples in his head. That meant he was thenceforth called “Zipper-Head”! He’s since healed up perfectly well. Just after that little incident, we had a wonderful visit from Greg’s mom and sister. This was the first time his mom had been to St. Louis, so I immediately embarked on a very rushed and busy tourist trip around the city. It was so lovely to have them here and I hope they come and visit again next year!! (hint-hint). I think the highlight was the Botanical Gardens and watching mom play in the kids’ section of the History Museum (I have photos as proof!). I think Cindy’s favourite was IKEA! (What’s not to like!!). We also went downtown and went up the Gateway Arch, saw the Mississippi and walked a lot around Forest Park and ate a lot of ice cream! The week after they left, I tried to outdo Greg and accidentally fell off our front porch. I just lost my footing as I was putting the chair cushions back out after a rainstorm. I spun off the steps and landed on the concrete, breaking my glasses and cutting my head open. Another trip to Urgent Care! Greg came with me and while they were cleaning me up and I was getting x-rays and a CT scan, Greg had his staples removed. I also had no lasting issues except that we both have a bit of a scar. I see a lot of bubble wrap in our future! This resulted in me getting onto our contractor and insisting that the railings get installed asap. April/May is also the worst allergy time in St. Louis as everything is pollenating. The railing posts were sunk into the ground and concreted in and the cracks made from the jackhammering were repaired.
Late April and early May I got some plants and veggies planted. It was nice to see some colour in the garden again. King Charles had his coronation, and I was up early with my pot of tea watching it and getting into the spirit of it. I AM British so I felt like I needed to take a bit of an interest. May was the perfect month to sit on the front porch with a good book and a cuppa tea before the summer heat got me. I spent a lot of time gardening and watching my garden go from dirt to budding plants. It always fascinates me how a simple seed can turn into something edible! Our railings finally were installed, and we were very happy with them. It totally changed the look of the front of our house. At first it felt a bit confining as it made the porch feel so much smaller, but we are totally used to it now and have made it our own and we love it. May also saw the start of our neighbourhood association events. We kicked it off with the flea market and our first concert of the year. Both huge successes. I was able to finally get rid of 3-4 years’ worth of donated items to our flea market. Covid stopped us from holding our flea market and I was keeping a few things for people to be donated – then a few more things, and before long I had a room full of items. It was great to get rid of them and get my room back! We also fired our garden service and bought a battery-operated lawn mower, weed whacker and leaf blower. If you want something done properly, do it yourself! Our lawn looked much better! Greg put up a couple of shelves for me in the living room and that made a nice difference. At the end of May I reaped my first zucchini and a few other spring veggies, and Greg was happy to braai his first corn of the season. I also helped a friend move again!
June saw us utilizing the front porch a lot. The front of our house gets more shade than the back, so that has become my little oasis. Even Greg seemed to prefer it even though he loves the heat and sun, whereas I hate it. More gardening and weeding and lawn cutting. We had someone come over to quote us on converting a basement storage room into a type of giant linen cupboard – something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. The quote was acceptable, and we signed the docs! We also had an addition to our family and Greg’s nephew’s girlfriend gave birth to little Autumn rather early, but all is well. Then, the start of the great sewer debacle happened. We had a backup in our drainage system, and we were unable to use the washer for a while. I spent every other day at the laundromat doing Greg’s laundry for his business. There were a lot of sheets that needed to be washed regularly and it cost an absolute fortune to do. We called a plumbing company in to sort it out and it just escalated into a massive project that eventually involved jackhammering up half of our basement and replacing all the sewer pipes and lining one of them. We had multiple cameras scoping out the pipes and different results from most of them. The first company did a botched job which the second company had to fix (twice) but they managed to make it right several months later. Also, it was hot! Very hot! We also had our second neighbourhood concert in the park.
In July we made our annual pilgrimage to Phelps, WI to see Greg’s family. It’s never without incident and after leaving very early in the morning when it was still dark, we started our 12-hour drive north. About 2 hours into the trip there was an accident with debris all over the highway. I didn’t have time or ability to swerve, and we hit some of the debris resulting in a flat tyre. We pulled over the side of the road and almost straight away, a highway patrolman stopped to help us. He changed our tyre for us, and we hobbled to the nearest place to get it replaced. It was a holiday weekend and a very small town so naturally they didn’t have staff, nor did they have our size tyre (it’s a farming community so they mostly only had truck tyres). So, we hobbled further to a bigger town and after another couple of tries, finally found a place to replace it for us, after a couple of hours’ wait. We knew this would extend our trip time and we hadn’t yet made it to Greg’s brother to pick him up. All was ok for the rest of the trip, and we had a lovely visit with Greg’s mom. No snow (lol), so I managed to get up the driveway’s hill with no problem. We celebrated mom’s birthday, went downtown to their little July 4th parade, met one of Greg’s old friends and met little Autumn. Our niece also visited on her new UTE and she took me for a drive! Fun!! Let’s do that again in 2024!! The trip home was uneventful. Greg finally got his inflatable pool out and spent a couple of hot days in it listening to our hometown baseball team’s games. More filthy, loud work in our basement. I had to postpone the storage room conversion to September due to the sewer work. Our poor cats were not impressed with all the noise and dust either. The first sewer company made a horrible mess of our basement, connected the wrong sized pipes and did a hack job of concreting. A second company was called in to fix it, only to discover that they’d installed the pipes backwards. This was all inspected via a permit from the City! The second company redid their work and dug up everything else and replaced all the pipes and took much better care of our property. They kept the dust to a minimum and cleaned up every day after they were finished and made sure our water was reconnected when they left. It was pointless for me to try and clean while they were here, so our basement just became a hive of filth for 2 more months. I got my first harvest of tomatoes and banana peppers! My sunflowers grew and my garden started looking rather lush. We had one huge rainstorm resulting in some huge flooding in the back yard. We hadn’t had much rain until then, so the garden soaked it up and the giant lake in the back yard sunk quickly. It was impressive to see though! At the end of July, we had our neighbourhood association trivia night – almost!! Due to the big storm, we had no power at the event so that meant no lights but more importantly, no air conditioning!! We had to postpone it for a week and get all our stuff together again a week later!
August started with our Trivia night: same place, same group of people and this time, with power! We totally sucked at Trivia, but we did win the best table decorations. Yay us! We have to be good at something! Trivia is always a fun night. We had another concert in the park which was very hot and not as well attended but still a big success. I helped a friend move into her new apartment. Our basement sewer work was completed, and I spent a very long time cleaning and getting things mostly back together. We needed to replace the flooring as parts of the carpets was destroyed so we got a quote for vinyl plank flooring and gave them the go-ahead to order it. I washed walls, ceilings and furniture multiple times and the dust just kept coming back as it settled. It was a huge and never-ending job. I’m still finding areas that I missed. One of our neighbour’s went on vacation and a neighbour and I enjoyed taking care of their chickens for a week. I am rather afraid of birds of all kinds so this was a bit of a “face-my-fears” week. I did fine and they were fun to watch and easy to take care of. The eggs made it worthwhile too. Greg hired someone to paint his office. It hadn’t been painted in quite a few years and desperately needed to be spruced up. He also bought a new rug for it and the room looks lovely again! Greg and I celebrated our 20th anniversary, Aggie celebrated her 16th birthday, and we had a lovely visit from Greg’s mom’s neighbour’s and did a few touristy things with them, ending with another successful concert in the park on Labour Day weekend!
September is my birthday month as well at Rugby World Cup month! This time we were able to get the games and they were shown at respectable times. I watched a lot of rugby and yelled my lungs out for the South African Springboks! A friend and I went to the Mandela exhibit at the Science Center, which was excellent. We finally got our basement flooring mostly finished after about a week of work and that meant that I had to re-clean the entire basement again. It was exhausting, but it is done, and it looks lovely. My sweet neighbour put an offer on the house she’d been renting, and it was accepted and finalized! We were so delighted that we don’t have to train up a new neighbour!! AND I still get to play with her awesome dog! Win-win!
In October we bought a new rug for the basement living room and that finished off the basement. It’s such a great feeling to be finally done! We also hosted our first National Night Out block party. I was a little apprehensive that not many people would show up, but we had a great turn out and it was such a fun night getting to know more people on our block and reconnecting with people we already knew. Our basement flooring project finally got completed. They’d had to order extra planks as they didn’t have enough to finish. The day they finished, the closet company came in, and in several hours, the storage room was transformed into a closet and it looks fantastic! It only took me a day to get it all sorted out and I’m very happy with it. It was still hot and my garden was still producing veggies although slowing down. We bought some solar lights for our front porch railing posts and they look great. We got our latest Covid booster so feel nicely protected for the Winter. Our neighbours across from us added to the membership of our block by giving birth to a beautiful baby girl. The Rugby World Cup ended victorious for South Africa with the Bokke winning the Cup again! I even sprayed my hair green for the occasion! I was so thrilled with having rugby in my life for a while again. Halloween saw Aggie and Bear being dressed up, which they hated. They had their annual photo shoot and then ripped the outfits off themselves as fast as they could.
In November a friend and I took a road trip to Grafton, IL and went to a winery and took a stroll around the area. We were looking for the leaves changing, and they didn’t disappoint! We had a lovely trip and vowed to go back again sometime. Greg and I went to see one of my favourite comedians, Kathleen Madigan, at the Steifel Theatre. We thoroughly enjoyed our night out (my birthday gift). I also got my hair permed (woot), cat-sat a gorgeous ginger monstrosity for a friend, baked a ton of cookies and celebrated with another friend in SA as she moved into her new house. Thanksgiving was spent at home, and we invited a couple of friends over to celebrate (and eat) with us! The following day Christmas threw up all over the house as I got stuck into decorating. I love Christmas so it’s never a chore. Our weather was still way too warm, so it was a little weird sitting downstairs with all the decorations and no fireplace on. Greg found a nice warm day to put the outside lights up too.
December was still way too warm with temperatures way above normal for this time of year. I went to a Christmas market in our neighbourhood, more cookies were baked and I coloured my hair. We hosted a Christmas Cheer evening with our immediate neighbour’s and had a lovely evening. My book club had a Christmas lunch and as usual we were involved in several lunches, dinners, and get-togethers of small groups. On Christmas day we had a few friends over and ate a lot and laughed a lot and had a lovely time. I ended up going with a friend to the Garden Glow at the Missouri Botanical Gardens which was amazing. They put up hundreds of thousands of lights at random areas of the Gardens and you’re able to walk around looking at them. Some are set to music; some are flashing, and some are just twinkly. It’s a very popular event with thousands of people going through the gardens while the event is running (several weeks). It was a great way to end the year. Greg has been cleaning out his old computer and transferring data to his new laptop, so it’s been good for him to have several days off to get it done. He had another record-breaking year of business which he’s well pleased about. He still loves what he does and he’s very good at it and his clients recognize that and support him wholeheartedly.
Tonight, being New Year’s Eve, Greg and I are planning on staying home, ordering Chinese food and binge watching something on TV. We may make it to midnight, but we’re not fussed if we don’t. We’re looking forward to a less eventful year in 2024. We have some plans for the year ahead, but our biggest wish is all our friends and family to have a happy, healthy, and less stressful year.
Category: Uncategorized
The Body is a Fascinating Thing
The body is an amazing thing! Love yours, or hate yours, it doesn’t change the complexity of it.
Recently I had a little potential health scare. I went for my annual 3D mammogram and a week later received a report in my patient portal telling me that nodules were found in both breasts and that further testing and ultrasounds were recommended. I panicked! A lot! My mom had breast cancer. I googled some of the verbiage in the report (don’t ever do that!) and was even more confused. The day I received the report, I’d been at my doctor for my annual physical and bloodwork too, but before receiving the report.
I called my doctor who didn’t really give me any reassurance, partly because she’s not a mind reader and can’t give me feedback without seeing the report herself and obviously she’s not going to give me false hope. She just said, “go back and get the ultrasounds and tests”. So, I called to make the appointment and could only get in 4 days later. 4. LONG. DAYS. LATER!
In the meantime, no matter what I did to try to take my mind off it my brain had total control of my body. My heart rate shot up, my blood pressure shot up, I developed stomach issues, joint aches, exhaustion, shakes, lack of sleep, total mental breakdown, emotional breakdown and I thought I was going to have a nervous breakdown. I did everything I knew to keep myself busy and quieten my mind, but my mind was having none of it.
I talked to several women about it and came to realize that many women get called back to have further testing done and each of them said that it turned out to be nothing. All I could think about was “what if its NOT nothing…?” I had no idea so many women experienced this too.
I don’t want to make light of this because I know several women who are either currently going through horrible treatment or have just finished the treatment and I’d just experienced a tiny taste of what they experienced. I’m so sorry and I pray for their total and complete healing and restoration in every area of their lives.
In the middle of this 4 day wait it was my birthday too! The last thing in the world I wanted to do was to celebrate it in any shape or form, but I sucked it up and tried to enjoy myself. Lots of bad things typically happen around my birthday: weather phenomena such as hurricanes (yes we evacuated for 2 of them around my birthdays), driving through a tropical storm in treacherous conditions to get to a wedding, illnesses/Covid, deaths, funerals etc., so being super positive wasn’t high on my list.
So, 4 days later, feeling like I had developed an ulcer, (!) a friend took me to the imaging center and came with me while I had the tests done. The mammographer and ultrasound technicians were wonderful and put me at ease and got right to the testing and sent it to the radiographer for the results and we waited for them. Turns out I have several small benign cysts that they will monitor from now on and all was fine. It took everything inside me not to burst into tears of relief.
By the time we’d walked out of the facility absolutely everything in my body that had fought against me for 4 days, immediately disappeared and returned to normal. How fascinating is the body!!! I was very much aware of it and totally focused on what was going on. I took my friend out for lunch to thank her for being there with me. I didn’t realize how much I DID need someone to be with me until it was over. I’m so used to doing everything on my own, so it was nice to have someone to share it with. That night I went to bed early and slept solidly for 10 hours! I haven’t slept that long in maybe a decade!
Oh, and just so that you know, my blood results came back good too (I was freaking out about those too).
Now to seriously learn how to relax, meditate and calm down. I’m open to suggestions on how to do that!
Memories of Sylvester
With just a little over 2 weeks to go until Daylight Savings Time kicks in and everyone goes “spring fever crazy”, I’m still sitting here amazed at how we got to this stage. I feel pretty hard done by for not having had a real winter this year. Christmas breezed by with just a couple of cold snaps, and we only had 2 small snowfalls. Lately the temperature has been above normal for this time of year and, quite frankly, I just don’t know how to dress for each day.
Our family in northern Wisconsin are dealing with a giant snowstorm that dumped well over a foot of snow on them, with below zero temperatures. This is when I get impressed by just how big a country this is. All 4 seasons in one country on the same day, depending on where you live. Here in St. Louis, we can have all 4 seasons in one day! Heck, even in one hour!
All of my bulbs are coming out and yesterday, when out on my walk, I saw a couple of daffodils in full bloom! It’s February! Go back underground, bulbs, it’s too early and you’ll freeze to death!
It’s been a rough start to 2023 for us. On January 19th we lost Sylvester to stage 3 kidney disease, although he had probably progressed to stage 4 by then. In an effort not to rehash the tragedy and save me some tears, I can only say that he was so greatly loved, and a huge part of our lives has vanished. He was our social butterfly; loved people, loved food, loved life and loved us. We will never have another cat like him. I held him in my arms as he took his last breath. No one stole stuff like he did and hid it in strange places. No one found the oddest items and played hard with it until it either broke or vanished, like he did. There is a gigantic hole in our lives right now, but Aggie and Bear are making it bearable for us. They are hurting too, so we are all good company for each other.
We were (and still are) overwhelmed by the love and support from our friends. I can’t thank the St. Louis Cat Clinic enough for their support, compassion and kindness. I had taken Sylvester to an emergency hospital for emergency treatment and that’s where we had to make the dreadful decision. The Cat Clinic knew about it before I got home and had left voicemail messages of condolence for me. When I called back, they were all crying. My vet was crying when she assured me that I’d done absolutely everything possible to keep Sylvester happy and as healthy as possible. I went there the next day to drop off and donate excess food and medicines and every single one of the staff hugged me and cried with me and shared many stories about Sylvester. I could tell that they’ve all been through this before and they just held me and let me sob. They also gave me a card that everyone had not only signed but written lovely messages about Sylvester. I will cherish this. Neighbours and friends have been so kind too, letting me blab on about Sylvester. I’ve set up a “wall of cats” opposite our front door so that Sylvester still greets us when we get home. A neighbor sent us a lovely tactile 3-D print of Sylvester with his name in Braille and a colour picture of him (which is now on the wall of cats). My phone has literally thousands of photos of all our cats, and I almost wish I could make wallpaper out of all of them.
It’s been 5 weeks since that horrible day and we are now in a better place and able to laugh about his antics and fun things. We still miss him incredibly, but the raw pain is lessening. No, he was not “only a cat”. He was our little ray of sunshine. He was 13 years and 9 months old.
Aggie and Bear are coping well without him. Aggie more than Bear. Bear seems to have taken on some of Sylvester’s nuances, and Aggie is very nonchalant about it. They are both 15 years old with their own issues but doing pretty well and giving us lots of love.
February galloped by with Greg and I celebrating that I’ve been in the USA for 19 years. I arrived on Valentine’s Day 2004. Greg sent me a beautiful bouquet of star fighter lilies. I was shocked as he never does that, and I even asked the delivery man if he had the right address! Then Greg celebrated his 61st birthday. We celebrated by going to a Board meeting, but then to Rockwell Beer Company with friends and of course, home to the giant German Chocolate Cake that I make for him every year.
Going forward, we have some house changes and updates to do, and I’m planning on holding a neighbourhood flea market – can’t wait to rid the house of stuff I’ve been hoarding for 3 years for it! For now, we’re in Lent and even though I’m not Catholic, I still believe that giving something up for a period of time is good for the body and soul. This year I’m giving up chocolate! Pray for me! Greg gave up alcohol! Pray for him! We are 3 days into it and already I’m opening random cabinets and staring at them.
One day melts into another, and for now, I’ll layer up before going out, and be down to a t-shirt when I get home, and then layer up again until the weather can make up its mind what it’s doing. It makes for an interesting laundry day.
When your pet doesn’t feel well…
It’s awful when your pets aren’t feeling well, even if it is self-inflicted on their part!
Sylvester, our 13-year-old Tuxedo cat, has a penchant for mischief. Even at this stage of his life he likes to surprise us. Several days ago, I’d forgotten to take something out of the freezer for dinner, so at the 11th hour, I grabbed a small pork loin roast and threw it in some cold water in the kitchen sink to defrost. I do it fairly often (brain fogged menopause brain syndrome) and thought nothing of it and ran down to the basement to finish cleaning. When I came upstairs, I found Sylvester hunched over the pork roast, with remnants all over the floor and 2 big holes bitten in the plastic. Pork blood and tiny pieces of meat hung around his whiskers! I didn’t think too much about it because, well, this is not his first rodeo, and he had stolen frozen pork chops once before as a kitten! I cleaned it up and he still ate a nice hearty dinner later.
The next day I knew something was up with him. He only had a few licks of breakfast and was starting to vomit, mostly just liquid and phlegm. He has asthma and we’ve been monitoring his inflammation, which includes how often he throws up phlegm and I have a pretty detailed log that I keep. When he started to vomit bile, I knew it was time to contact the vet.
I emailed back and forth with his doctor who recommended a couple of medications. By this time, he’d also stopped drinking water and was looking a little shaky and miserable. I was told to withhold food from him for 24 hours and if he was still like that, take him to the emergency clinic the next day.
The next day was no better. He threw up on our bed during the night, so I got up and took him downstairs to the basement and we chilled on the couch for the rest of the night so that we could give Greg some peace. He just lay on top of me all that time and was very miserable. I tried to coax him with all his favourite foods and treats and even tried to get some water into him by using a syringe, but he was having none of it. Later, that morning he came upstairs and tried drinking some water but brought that up almost immediately. I called the vet and collected the meds, but they advised that I take him to the emergency clinic and don’t start the meds so that they can get a full picture of what’s going on.
The emergency clinic doctors only arrived at noon (yes, I know!) and we were there a little before. There are renovations going on there and no one is allowed in with their pets, so we consulted over the phone, and they came and took him from me so that he could see a doctor. The doctor examined him, and I’d given them a copy of the log I’d kept, as well as the meds I got from his vet, and she called me back and said she suspects it’s gastritis from eating the pork which was exasperated by his feline asthma symptoms. To be on the safe side she recommended taking an x-ray of his abdomen to ensure that he didn’t eat any of the plastic around the pork and that it wasn’t stuck somewhere in his tummy. Once the x-rays were completed she called me back to say there was no foreign body inside and there’s just an inflamed fold in his tummy that she says it’s fairly typical when a cat has been vomiting so much. She didn’t see any growth or obstruction, but she was going to send the x-ray to a Board-Certified Radiologist to confirm her findings. If I don’t hear from her, all is fine. I haven’t heard from her!!
She didn’t think Sylvester would be able to tolerate the oral meds at this stage, so recommended giving him an injection to stop the nausea and vomiting and an injection to stimulate his appetite and I totally agreed (one less pill to give him!). He could start the oral meds the next day. Within 15 minutes he was back in the car while I tried to be a brave girly and not cry!
I got him home and he was very happy to be back. In fact, he must have been feeling a lot better already because he went straight to the water bowl and sucked down a bunch of water. I followed him around like a hawk, making sure he didn’t throw that up, and he didn’t! Bit by bit, he returned to the feeding area and ate a little and drank more water. At dinner time he inhaled everything. I didn’t want to give him extra food, even though he hadn’t eaten for nearly 48 hours, because I didn’t want to upset his tummy, so I gave him a random treat here and there. He managed to keep it all down and there was no vomiting involved. He was perkier and getting stronger, but still not quite himself.
That night, after a bit of wailing and pacing, he finally jumped into bed with us and fell asleep. We were all exhausted and slept well. No vomiting through the night either. At breakfast time, his food bowls were empty so that was a good sign and he ate well again and was still drinking a nice amount of water. He started his meds and seeing as he loves pill pockets, it wasn’t very difficult to persuade him to take them.
Today, 4 days later, he is still a little sleepy and not quite 100%, but he is eating and drinking and doing all the cat related things. I’m just giving him some space and letting his body recover and giving his vet regular updates.
I’m incredibly grateful and thankful for everyone’s help, from the staff at his regular clinic, to the emergency clinic (who didn’t treat me like a crazy overprotective cat mom) and took everything I said very seriously. Now we will work on getting his asthma totally under control, but first he has to finish the gastritis meds and bounce back a little more.
Feel better Vestie-pestie. Your fan club is banking on it!
Sylvester making himself a comfy nest. 
Farewell Service Club for the Blind
So last week, June 17th, 2020 I got terminated from my job. I’m a little confused, very angry yet also a little relieved. There were only 2 paid staff members and we were both terminated. We have 89 clients that we service and I’m confused about what will happen to them. I know the business is not closing. #ThingsThatMakeYouGoHmmm. Instead of eliminating our positions or whatever they want to politically correctly call it, why didn’t they put us to work doing fundraising, getting a plan together to do that? No fundraising has been done in decades!
I have been there for 13 years, been through 3 different president’s, witnessed some amazingly lackadaisical business practices and “management” and heard the most incredible amount of gossip and back-biting ever.
I reckon I’m a fairly good employee. I follow rules, I go the extra mile and I’ve never had a bad evaluation. Work ethic in the USA is very different to what I was used to in South Africa. Even job hunting in the USA is very different. Here, if you don’t have a degree (any degree) you are placed on the “nah, not now” pile of resumes. In South Africa, experience does count. Secondly, if you are not American it can be a little sketchy. Then add the fact that you may be over 50 – they say they can’t discriminate, but well, you know how that goes!
Everything about this termination annoys me, the timing of it (during the Corona pandemic), the way it was handled (telephonically) – incidentally I was on my way to the post office to collect the office mail when I was called, and the total ignorance as to how the business will be run going forward.
Nonprofits are made up and run by a Board of Directors. You’d hope that this Board of Directors would have a ton of business knowledge to impart or have business connections in order to solicit donations, have major fundraising experience. They are volunteers who are unpaid with no other aim except to govern and direct the running of the business. In order to remain in operation, they HAVE to do fundraising, solicit bequests and donations and of course, meet the needs of the clientele they are serving. Has this Board done any of that? Oh hell no!
What will I miss (besides a pay cheque and health insurance)? Well, I will miss my book club group the most. I’ll miss the Christmas shopping day, I’ll miss decorating the Christmas tree for every occasion during the year and I’ll miss having a laugh with my colleague. What won’t I miss? I will not miss the gossip, back-biting and the indecisive decision making and lack of business skills, lack of ethics, laziness, ignorance and the attitude that “someone else can do it”.
Unfortunately the blind community seem to be their own worst enemy. It’s a catch 22 situation. They have some good ideas but due to lack of education, business and experience, they deliver it poorly and are not taken seriously. Their expectations are irrational. Most blind people who want to study further and gain business skills are not given the opportunity due to discrimination or an unfair assumption that they are unable to perform a duty. Missouri is a state that chooses to give a “help out” instead of a “help up”. Even the Missouri School for the Blind does not seem to provide adequate social and living skills to their students. Gone are the days when blind people would be taken seriously and do everything and anything to provide for their family. I’ve heard stories of blind people going door to door selling brooms and mops, take many forms of transportation to get to work that was located miles away and get involved in making a difference. This is how the Service Club for the Blind was formed in 1934. It had the potential to do great things and be well known and appreciated in its neighbourhood. Instead, when I mentioned where I worked, I’d hear “I never knew it was there and I’ve lived here all my life”. I had so many ideas and thoughts of what I would have liked to see us do there. Fundraising ideas that are always knocked down.
So why are they terminating us? Who knows! We were told the Board was restructuring. That could mean anything. Personally, I think they wanted to get rid of the sighted people. I know the Board members are not very computer literate or business savvy and few (if any) of them have had jobs in the corporate or business industry (or any real job). It’s very much a self-serving Board, reeking of conflict of interests. Their hearts are in the right place. They want it to work, they want it to prosper, but they want someone else to do it. For many years, they’ve gone round and round making decisions that are irrelevant to the general running of the place, due to their lack of experience.
2 years ago with new leadership I thought we were starting to head in the right direction and I could see change on the horizon, but then fear and panic kicked in and too much “he said, she said” started to raise its ugly head, and I could see once more, that the renewed positivity was taking a downward dive. When you’re dealing with blind Board members who have seldom held down a full-time job in the business world, they do not understand how an office is run. In the 21st century everything is done on the computer. EVERYTHING! So, when I sit at my desk, I’m working.
To terminate the only 2 staff members while the business is closed during a pandemic with no severance package, when they have done nothing wrong, is vindictive, personal and irrational. It’s a 501(c)3 Private Foundation. Go look online at their investment and financial documents. You’ll see they are not hurting. We, the ex-staff on the other hand, are.
Unfortunately this is the last charity I will ever support. I know their background. I know they do nothing substantial for their clients. I would advise you to do the same. Please make sure you all lose my phone number and email address. Don’t ask me for anything.
#peaceout
Aside
I’m just checking to see what an aside looks like…