Being There
Being there sometimes means work. When you have your own business, you often need help.
When we lived up in Norfolk, George had a newspaper delivery route. It was the Winsted Evening Citizen, so delivery was in the afternoon. I don't know if he started the route with a standard shift but he had a three shift on the column and 2nd shift didn't work. He needed my help to sit in the backseat and stuff the newspapers in the boxes.
The most memorable day of delivering newspapers was August 16, 1982. We had made one stop along the route to grab a candy bar at the store and got home about 6 pm to get dinner. As soon as I got out of the car, nine months pregnant, my water broke. So, off we went to the hospital. I wasn't allowed to eat of course, so I was thankful I had had that Snickers bar. Ben was born the next morning at 4:45 am. The subs George had trained and lined up for when I went to the hospital bailed on us, so George had to do the route alone and I felt pretty alone that 2nd time having a baby because no one else came to visit.
Later George also had a morning newspaper delivery (different car). He would leave in the wee hours of the morning. I stayed with the kids, but on Saturdays I helped him get the Sunday inserts ready. They often gave extra and I enjoyed the benefits of extra coupons--something I was seriously into in those days.
One of George's first business ventures was a trash collection business. This was before the big trash trucks were making routes in the small towns. He took over another's route and every Saturday would pick up trash and load it into his pick up truck and then unload it off the bed at the landfill. We actually benefitted from "one person's trash...." We got an outdoor patio set, TV and other things other people were done with but we happily adopted.
On Saturday mornings, I worked at the Post Office. When my shift was over, he would swing by and pick me up and I'd help him finish the route.
I mentioned all the other business ventures we tried in a previous post. We were co-partners in all of those.
When he ran for office, I helped campaign door to door. One memory from that was knocking at a screen door and a dog came running from inside and jumped at the door and it crashed down on me. How I kept my balance, I don't know.
Then there were times with George's cleaning business that I needed to help him complete some jobs. He did get to a point when he hired some employees, but if they call in sick, you have to do it and you can never call in sick. The worst was when everyone else gets a few days off, George didn't get any days off when his mother died. He was a hard worker.
The other occupation we kind of shared, was being landlords. I really felt it was his job, but there were many times we had to work together, especially when tenants abandoned the apartment and left some unbelievable messes.
So, even though I don't remember it in our vows, we were there for each other in work.
"Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: if either of them falls down, one can help the other up."
Ecclesiastes 4:9-10
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