03/27/15

Not many who read this probably know Wilma, so I thought it was time to provide some background on how we teamed up as friends.

About five years ago we worked together for a short time.  One might not normally get to know someone so well in the workplace when you only work together for a few months, but this was more of a war zone than a work place and when a comrade arrives new to you in battle and has your back from the start, it doesn’t take long to forge that bond.

She was/is a straight shooter in that if your honest with who you are and what you need, she will help without pause.  I don’t think it took Wilma but about two days to determine the owner of the company we worked for was a bit mental and when she asked about a something that was on the border of needing a conversation with him and she said “I don’t think I will open that can of worms” I immediately knew I had someone who got the situation and could make working there again bearable.  I’m pretty sure I told her I loved her that day.

We had been through many people when Wilma took the job and unlike others who didn’t have the skills to withstand the position, she was overqualified in education, experience and mental toughness.  I’m sure all of those reasons also played into her resignation just a few months into the chaos.

She stayed long after she ever meant or needed to just to make sure that I wasn’t being left to deal with the wreckage alone.  Every week she would say it was her last, but when no one came in that was remotely acceptable, she would stay while the search continued.

I left not long after she did as she did help me to see how badly the atmosphere had deteriorated – or maybe was always horrid.

While it was sometimes an gruel to work there, we also had so much fun in the daily making fun of some of the ridiculous situations.  I got to learn the “many faces” of Wilma and to delight in the times when she thought she wasn’t showing her thoughts and it was like a one way mirror for me.  I could see exactly what she was thinking and she couldn’t see that her reactions were so clear.

We stayed in touch after she quit and I got her girls to take a Sabre Fencing class that I had helped to set up to promote the club that my eldest son was in that needed more participants.  I also took the class.  I guess she declined thinking paying for her two girls as participants was enough and she liked making fun of me in the class with all the kids in it anyway.  I did get another friend to take with me, so I wasn’t the only non-teenager in the classes.  It actually was quite fun and a good workout.

Her girls now compete on a high level in Australia with the Sydney Sabre Fencing club.

I’m a lucky gal to have her as a friend.

Love you Wilma!

Betty