A Little bit more about Me

Like I originally said, I am a Mother and a Grandmother as well as a wife. Until January of this year I had worked for 16 years for a construction products distributor as the general manager, and until last year the only person running the day to day business.
I met many nice customers, and developed a good working relationship with many long time customers who I considered friends too. I did all the customer service writing up their orders, helping them select the right materials to use, and keeping up files on computer of all their purchases and account information.
I was in charged of keeping track of inventory, ordering more stock and expediting it into the shop, doing all the shipping by UPS or whatever needed and keeping it in order in the shop. I even drove the Hilo to unload trucks and move stock around. I was very good at keeping popular items in stock and not ordering too much that would have to be scrapped if over shelf life. During that time I never got any vacation, because the owner didn't pay for vacations, and only the minimal days of Holidays.
That was until last July when I got sick with Flesh Eating Bacterial infection last summer in July in a private area and spent 4 weeks in the hospital with 4 surgeries to remove both the infection and debrade dead skin. It took me two weeks out of the hospital and then I ended back in due to three blood clots that had formed in my leg and lungs, making it painful and difficult to breath with every step. Anyways.. I spent another week in the hospital to get rid of that.. during the big black out of 2003 yet!
Since I was the only one who usually ran the place, the boss's granddaughter did the best she could to quickly learn to run the place. She had to leave for her first teaching job out of college, and she trained her boyfriend who stayed. During the weeks I was in the hospital, the owner passed away after many months of fighting cancer of the lungs and brain and other things. The boyfriend did alright and was eager to learn. The son of the owner took over as my supervisor under his Mom who inherited the business from her husband.
When I finally returned in late September, the son was going to make the boyfriend an "on the road salesman" as he learned the business and I would continue to run the store. That continued until early January, when naturally, the business slowed down quite a bit. THEN! The Son actually laid me off instead of the kid. His reasoning was that he couldn't afford both of our salaries and he wanted the kid to stay and learn more, and try to drum up more business from new customers.

During January, February and March, and April I was collecting unemployment and was working a few hours here on call, until business picked up when the kid needed to go out and see a potential new customer. It was on May 7 th I had my stroke and ended my career in that company and I was actually scheduled to work for them. Let me note here too, that I rarely missed a sick day in all those 16 years unless I was so sick that I had to be hospitalized for a day, like the time I had a kidney stone and missed a day, or when my Dad passed away in Florida and had the fly out on Friday I left and returned to work again on Monday. Otherwise I was always there. That's gratitude for ya! HA! HA! No retirement fund, no nothing!