On Monday, Sharon whispered to me that
she was planning on leaving. She brought me this information in confidence and
I promised myself that I would let her tell the group her intentions. I honored
that promise.
Today, at breakfast, Sharon told the
group what she was doing. She even told them the timetable of the departure.
She will be leaving after Thanksgiving. There were all the usual rounds of
discussion. People asked her to stay and they did all the pro and con
arguments. I remained very quiet as our group tried to convince her to stay. I
know their pleas were coming from a place of love and compassion.
But what I have learned living with
Sharon for the last 208 days is that once she sets her mind to something,
nothing is changing it. Even before everything fell apart, I always told myself
that I loved Sharon. I would have long conversations with her in the break room
if we had lunch at the same time. She would always give hugs and pats on the
back and we could always make each other laugh… But I didn’t want to work for
her.
I got the impression that she was a
bit of a taskmaster but in a good way. She ran a tight ship in the bakery
department. That is why she always made her numbers. She was respected by her
employees and maybe even a little bit feared. But that department was a
well-oiled machine.
When she came to me on Monday to tell
me about her plan, she asked for my help in quelling any sort of desire to
“make her stay.” Others would no doubt be upset about her departure but with me
lending my voice of support, others may fall into line.
Thankfully, almost everyone understood
her reasoning. I feel this is a very good thing because Sharon is that type of
person that once she makes her decision, there is no talking her out of it. I
will admit that I do admire her determination. Obviously the group is bummed
out about this but everyone kind of adopted the attitude of “If she has to go,
she has to go.” Now, this is my fear. Back when I was
playing World of Warcraft, I would take part in these random raids where
twenty-five people would get together for a random raid. But if things went
poorly or the raid wasn’t doing well, some people would opt to just abruptly
leave. And once that first person bailed out, it could start a domino effect
and the whole thing could fall apart.
Sharon leaving could prompt an exodus,
especially when the weather turns cold and we can travel a little more freely
with the zombie frozen in place by plunging temperatures. I will not stop
anyone from leaving. If they want to leave, there is no reason to force them to
stay. But I know what we have here. I know the safety. I know the food.
Every last one of our group can leave
if they wish but Alex and I are going to honor the one year plan. In fact, if
everyone left, Alex and I could stay for a considerable amount of time if we
had to. The plan is solid. We are sticking with it…
