There were bright spots on the weekend: on Friday we had a great day at the stores, with sales ahead of Valentine Friday in 2014, and we spent some wonderful time on Saturday and Sunday with our daughter, Rebecca.
But I have to admit it was not the best long weekend on record. On Saturday, we had our first daytime robbery at the Yorkville store, and – way down on the scale of importance – I cut my finger on a steak knife and finally decided Monday night that I might need a stitch in it and went to emergency.
The upsetting part of the robbery was the impact on the team member involved. She was scared, as anybody would be, and as the business owner, there is a feeling of responsibility when someone is negatively affected in my business no matter when, why or how. Thankfully there was no weapon or threat of weapon and the incident was quickly over.
With the weekend behind us, what sticks in my mind is the impression made on me by the police after the robbery and by the professionals in the emergency department regarding my minor cut finger. There’s so much negative discussion sometimes in the world – not just Toronto – about the people who look after us, including their cost: everyone loves to complain about taxes. But within 5 minutes of our call to the police, they were at the store, securing everything, making sure everyone was okay and reviewing the video footage. They were really professional and it made me think that we are lucky to live in a part of the world where a business is actually protected – of course bad things happen, that’s life, but there was nothing haphazard about the immediate help we got.
Similarly in the hospital it was fast, professional, thorough: tetanus shot, Krazy glue (whatever), bandage! Admittedly it was minus 35 degrees outside so maybe that kept the emergency room crowd down but still, I had the same thought as I did on Saturday: we’re lucky to have access to this care and attention.
You’ll likely be thinking that they also gave me some good drugs at the hospital – I sound rather Pollyanna – but I realized in the midst of my weekend adventures that I’m pretty damn lucky. I think we all are around here.
