Working Together in Marriage and in Business – Debbie Havusha’s Blog
Working Together in Marriage and in Business
Last week Yossi and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary. We were married on August 4th in 1985 at ‘Beit Sokolov’ in Tel-Aviv. At the time it was a prestigious building where many of the journalists congregated to discuss the news, and also a place where many couples got married in a divine garden.
We decided to head to the Okanagan and celebrate there amongst the lovely parks and orchards our thirty years of matrimony. We chose Summerland, a place where we always wanted to check out. We were recommended to drive up Walkers Road and there we would find a few B&B’s. As we drove up the road we passed an appealing sign –‘Apples ‘N Wine’ to our right and to the left was a B&B called -‘Front Bench’. We caught a glimpse of a power chair parked in the front entrance to this welcoming house. It was here that our hearts lead us to celebrate our wedding anniversary.
We knocked on the front door and a most gracious woman answered the door. I asked her if there was a room available. The answer was affirmative! Our room had an exquisite view of the lake and was exactly what we were looking for; a beautiful room with a view, with wonderful hosts Jan and Stearns Hodge.
Over breakfast, Jan and Stearns told us that they have been married for almost 42 years. Stearns had sustained a devastating electrical injury when he was 34, which required numerous amputations. In September 1984, Stearns was working as a building contractor in Nelson. One morning, on a renovation jobsite, he was trying to remove a jammed 12-metre aluminum ladder. Suddenly, he was on fire, and his co-workers were dousing him with water. The ladder had snagged a power line, making him a conductor for thousands of volts of electricity. At the time their children were ages 9, 7 and 2.
We certainly had lots of familial and familiar stories to share about overcoming adversity and parenting styles. We all agreed that having the right attitude and the right supports can get us through the most challenging of hardships. Stearns says: “Living with a disability balanced us out. It slowed me down enough that Jan could keep up. We think of ourselves as tension and compression: with the right amount of each, everything is held together.”
Jan and Stearns have been running their delightful B&B for the last 3 years. I felt significant parallels with the enduring married Hodge couple. Yossi and I have recently joined a business venture- to expand the www.yossilnks.com online platform that we launched together on February 2015. (Stay tuned in the next August 26th blog….)
So, on a date to remember in August, together, in the Front Bench’s back garden, all four of us, shared positive grins on our faces knowing that staying married is a hard enough challenge. Dealing with family members who have acquired or live with congenital disAbilities, and then working together as business partners can all certainly test the waters of the strongest of captains riding the waves of the toughest of seas.
Let`s just say that being a good journalist and telling the story like it is while finding prose from the garden of life, makes for a very good story of matrimonial business! Yours in MOMentum, Debbie:)
