Remembering Dot
Aug. 20th, 2008 01:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grnvixenFast trip to Leavenworth last night to go to a visitation for an old friend. Cut for possible length and cause this is really for me
More years ago than I really care to remember, I took a brief foray into small businness and had an independent bookstore in Leavenworth. For the time, it didn't do all that bad (2.5 inventory turnover) but it didn't do well enough to pay my salary so I had to fold it. It was hard and I miss it but looking at the industry now, it was the right call.
One of my part-time staff was Dorothy, an older woman I had met when working at another bookstore while in college. She had a disabled husband and had raised two sons by the time I knew her. She was active in the local theater community but liked a little part-time work too. She was old enough to be my mother but we got along as friends. She had a good work ethic but could also be very stubbon :). She got cancer about 10 years ago, fought it and won at the time but it came back and finally took her last week.
The photos at the visitation pictured a Dot I had not really known, so so young. By the time I met her she had been through a lot. She was a newly married mother of one son when her husband went off to the Korean War and returned paralyzed. This was in the 50's, when there was none of the support network handicapped and disabled vets, and civilians, have today. They had another child (she once told me it was a very good thing that he looked exactly like his dad, or there would have been trouble with the in-laws :) ) and she managed, that is what you did in those days. I think it helped make her very tough and she could also be very tenacious for what she believed in.
She was a tough gal, and probably wouldn't have minded being called a tough broad. She also had a very strong energy. We used to joke that we had a poltergist-type ghost in the bookstore because books had a tendency to fall off the shelves by themselves. This could have been because the building the store was in was built in the 1800s and the floor was slanted so that if there was a fire the water would drain back out and be recovered and reused to fight the fire. I say we joked about it but one time when I threw off a joke about 'it' all the boooks on the top shelf of one unit fell on the floor directly behind me. I think I immediately fell on my knees and swore "I do believe in ghosts, I do believe in ghosts" in my best cowardly lion voice :). BUT, when Dot was gone for several weeks, no books fell........ Coincidence? I don't think so :).
Rest in peace Dot.
Also had a little time to go through more things my mother is sorting for the move. There will be another trip in September to help her pack. House is still on the market. If anyone is interested in a good ranch-style 3BR/2BA (full basement with walk-out entrance) in Leavenworth drop me an email :).
More years ago than I really care to remember, I took a brief foray into small businness and had an independent bookstore in Leavenworth. For the time, it didn't do all that bad (2.5 inventory turnover) but it didn't do well enough to pay my salary so I had to fold it. It was hard and I miss it but looking at the industry now, it was the right call.
One of my part-time staff was Dorothy, an older woman I had met when working at another bookstore while in college. She had a disabled husband and had raised two sons by the time I knew her. She was active in the local theater community but liked a little part-time work too. She was old enough to be my mother but we got along as friends. She had a good work ethic but could also be very stubbon :). She got cancer about 10 years ago, fought it and won at the time but it came back and finally took her last week.
The photos at the visitation pictured a Dot I had not really known, so so young. By the time I met her she had been through a lot. She was a newly married mother of one son when her husband went off to the Korean War and returned paralyzed. This was in the 50's, when there was none of the support network handicapped and disabled vets, and civilians, have today. They had another child (she once told me it was a very good thing that he looked exactly like his dad, or there would have been trouble with the in-laws :) ) and she managed, that is what you did in those days. I think it helped make her very tough and she could also be very tenacious for what she believed in.
She was a tough gal, and probably wouldn't have minded being called a tough broad. She also had a very strong energy. We used to joke that we had a poltergist-type ghost in the bookstore because books had a tendency to fall off the shelves by themselves. This could have been because the building the store was in was built in the 1800s and the floor was slanted so that if there was a fire the water would drain back out and be recovered and reused to fight the fire. I say we joked about it but one time when I threw off a joke about 'it' all the boooks on the top shelf of one unit fell on the floor directly behind me. I think I immediately fell on my knees and swore "I do believe in ghosts, I do believe in ghosts" in my best cowardly lion voice :). BUT, when Dot was gone for several weeks, no books fell........ Coincidence? I don't think so :).
Rest in peace Dot.
Also had a little time to go through more things my mother is sorting for the move. There will be another trip in September to help her pack. House is still on the market. If anyone is interested in a good ranch-style 3BR/2BA (full basement with walk-out entrance) in Leavenworth drop me an email :).
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no subject
Date: 2008-08-20 07:02 pm (UTC)Sincere condolences for the loss of an old friend.
D.
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Date: 2008-08-20 07:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-20 07:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-20 07:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-20 08:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-21 01:00 am (UTC)