The Good, The Bad & The Ugly!

Let's start with the Ugly, because when life is ugly it can only get better!

2018 - Feb 2021 I worked for Echo Management Services.  I loved my job and life was going well.... enter the pandemic! Covid Smovid, I used to say. It felt surreal to hear everyone talking about a pandemic! I mean who would have thought! This was stuff we read about in the history books!

My son Jesse was graduating from University and I was super excited as my sister was coming down to join in the celebrations. March 20th 2020 we were going to celebrate and go to some fancy restaurant Jesse had chosen, after we had attended the formal celebrations at UCT.

However about 2 days after my sister arrived the talk of lock down in South Africa started. I had been waiting so long for this wonderful celebration and to spend time with my sister having fun in Cape Town when all of a sudden we were instructed that we were to remain indoors and only venture to the shops or the beaches or anywhere for that matter, if it was essential and if we had to move from our homes we had to wear a mask!

Honestly at first I thought the world had gone mad! Was Covid even real! It was all nuts! Anyway we ended up having a lovely dinner at home to celebrate the achievements of Jesse and Heather. It was so sad as this was one kid that really wanted to celebrate graduation, and he was denied this with his first degree and then his second post grad degree the following year as the pandemic seemed like it was here to stay!

Jesse completed his entire post graduate degree online. Lectures were cancelled and he returned home in the May after spending almost two months in Jhb. He had taken Heather back to her family and got stuck up in Jhb until the govt allowed a window for people to travel back to their provinces! Jesse finally came home to complete his final year at home. I treasured these days knowing only too well that in January Jesse would leave home to work in Johannesburg. 

Covid and lockdown were not all bad.  I started walking around my house everyday, 20 laps, I started getting fit and even lost some weight!. My little pups Benji would walk with me, I think he thought I was going crazy! But it started a love for walking which has continued to this day! If I don't get out to walk at least twice a week I start getting cabin fever!

I also loved the time spent with my family Jason and Jesse forming a bond that I had longed for when they were growing up started to emerge. Family chats and dominoes became a thing! It was a happy time. 

I also spent a lot of time in my garden and began a fairy garden which has brought me much joy and a lot of peace. I would spend hours in the garden to clear my head and find peace. All this time I continued to work for Echo but I could see the effects the pandemic was having as I did a lot of Air BnB work and that had all stopped. We had all been put on to half salary which also posed its own problems! ok so we didn't have to pay for petrol so at that time it was only a third of your salary! I had to make up the loss of salary somehow so I decided to start baking and selling my delicious treats! 

I started with poppyseed rusks and my first client Sybille paid me upfront for  6  orders, and thus began Deborah's Delights. 

There was a lot of shuffling that went on at work and as I saw my job shrinking I also saw an opportunity to move within the Company and thus began my journey with SaggyStone!

The UGLY

I had decided to take on the role at Saggy as it meant I no longer had such a severe drop in salary, but this was to be the worst decision I could ever make. the month of August I worked concurrently for both Echo and Saggy learning the business, From September I was full time with Saggy but still carrying some workload from Echo. Sales boomed at Saggy in lockdown, and I hit the ground running! It was all just too much and I got very sick, went to see my doctor and he booked me off! But of course as we do when starting a new position we don't want to seem incompetent and even though I told my boss that I was booked off, his response was " please send me the bank sheet and salaries by the end of the day etc etc! Not to bore you with the details but I got even sicker and only when I emailed the big boss to say I would be taking sick leave did anyone take me seriously!

Needless to say this did not sit well with my immediate boss and it was a slippery slope and all downhill from there.  When I called a meeting with the boss to discuss the workload , he basically had a labour consultant sit in the meeting and gave me an ultimatum ! I know the law and it was all very wrong and so I decided to challenge the offer, and left as a retrenchment at the end of January 2021! All I have to say about that is that 2 people replaced me! The only positive of that work experience is that I have made some lifelong friendships that I treasure dearly!

I then decided that I would pursue Deborah's Delights as a full-time business.  It was all going pretty well when The bad happened.....

The Bad

Even though Andre had worked his butt off throughout lockdown, it was just not enough, sales in his industry were down, and his company decided in February 2020, that they could no longer afford him! It was a double whammy! Both of us had now lost really good paying jobs!  Life has always thrown us many curve balls! but it had never been where we were both not working! the months to follow would be very tough!

Andre also started feeling unwell in April of 2021, he had no energy, his breathing had become laboured. It was rough to watch! Now in December 2020 Andre volunteered for the vaccine! No convincing of mine would change his mind, knowing my husband as I do, yes it was his way of doing mankind a service! In the August he then had the Phizer vaccine which government now rolled out for the general public.Well his health just went from bad to worse. Amidst all this turmoil I am so grateful for the distraction which I call the good!

The Good 

In April Jesse decided that he was going to propose to Heather! Initially I was shocked as Jesse had always said he wanted to be qualified and own his first home before he took a wife, but he was clearly smitten by Heather and decided that he did not want to wait. He pulled out all the stops and surprised Heather with a hot air balloon ride and a proposal at Hartebeespoort dam. We had flown to Jhb Andre Jason and myself and enjoyed a fabulous engagement party!

Another great thing that happened in the February of 2020, is that my daughter Ashleigh came home from London! My heart was so full having her back home. She had decided that since she could not travel due to Covid restrictions she may as well come home when her contract ended. She was home just two weeks when she was reemployed by an American Company!  She had the best great South African weather as well as earning $! 

It was so exciting knowing we had a wedding coming up in the November! I loved Heather and knew that this was the one I had prayed for since the day Jesse was born!  I used to sing over my children this lallabuy

" Somewhere there's someone waiting for you, And someday that someone will say I do... And maybe that baby is with mommy too and maybe that Mommy is praying for you. Someone special waiting for you and someday some how God will bring that someone, someone special to you"

She was the one I had prayed for! I was grateful. 

On November 6th Jesse and Heather were married. The Wedding was a wonderful day of celebration and happiness!