The previous Spring, I had left the job that I thought I would have for the rest of my life.
I spent the summer decompressing, sleeping, reading and wondering what was next.
I mean, after ten years of answering "the call to come help change the world" as your job description, honestly, where do you go after that?
I had no clue, but I knew I was 3 weeks away from running out of all the money I had in the world.
It was time to get a job.
I had always wondered what it would be like to work in a bookstore.
So, I applied to three different stores.
I interviewed with Barnes and Noble.
They wanted me to work part-time...which to them meant 38 hours with no insurance.
It wasn't ideal, but it was the best offer I had.
Then I came home one day and heard a message on the answering machine.
"Hello?This message is for Nancy.
Nancy, this is Chris Turner, at Half Price Books.
I'm calling about your application...we'd like to interview you, if you're still interested.
So give me a call me back and we'll set up an appointment....
Okay honey? Alright, I'll talk to you later, Dear."
I remember standing in the living room and smiling at the answering machine.
"Honey?" "Dear?"
Was this a Bookstore or a Diner that serves up comfort food and homemade pie, where the waitress calls you honey?
I went to the interview and The rest is, as they say, history.
11 of those 13 years I worked for the woman that left that message on my machine.
Chris Turner.
Chris always told me that I could not leave or transfer to another store (read Chicagoland), until she retired.
She ended up taking an early retirement to focus on staying well and continue her battle against colon cancer.
I talked to her exactly one month ago today and she was still spitting out her catch phrases that her employees call "Turnerisms." She told me she had been working on her bucket list and crossed off riding in a combine and that she was going to go to the Eiteljorg Museum with her sisters on the next Friday.
A week or so after I talked to her, she went into the hospital.
Two weeks later she passed away.
As I mentioned, Chris was the kind of person that had a long list of trade-mark catch phrases.
She was the kind of person that can call you "Honey...Sweetie....Dooberhead...or shout....No, No, No, No...or....shut, shut, shutty....talk to the hand cause the face isn't listening..."
in loud voice and still not make you feel offended.
She was down to earth. Tell it like it is. You hardly ever wondered where you stood with her.
She told you the good and she told you the bad.
Sometimes it was great to hear. Other times it sent us running to hide until the rant passed.
But her heart was big and she held no grudges.
Chris was the kind of manager that you don't appreciate until she's not your manager.
She was a master delegator.
She knew how to create responsible employees by giving her workers tasks, trusting them to do their best and getting out of their way while they do it, either succeeding or failing.
Most succeed, and by doing so, ownership is created and when employees feel like they "own it," they care more. When they care more, they are happier and when they are happier, the business is successful.
Much of Chris' style was unorthodox in many professional (read corporate) circles, but there are few stores where a manager can be on medical leave for months at a time and everything still runs smoothly.
It's because the employees step up and own it.
Chris not only had trade mark phrases, she also had trade mark beliefs.
I honestly don't believe I would have stayed working in retail for as long as I have if it wasn't for having her as a boss and the the values she held.
I learned a lot from Chris.
But there are a few that I still apply every.single.day.
There is a bumper sticker that says "I know there is a hell, I work in retail."
Most days it is not true, but there are some days, some customers, some incidents that make this bumper sticker ring true.
There is a lot of crazy that happens when dealing with the public...
especially in a business that both sells AND buys things to and from their customers.
There is a lot that can happen when 30 plus people work together all day, every day.
Drama happens.
In those situations, Chris would often shout it out:
"There are No Book Emergencies!!!"
And it is a simple saying.
But also a very true saying.
To this day, whenever the customer or employee Drama threatens to push me past the edge...
I hear her "There are No Book Emergencies" in the back of my head and I (usually) take a deep breath and step back from the ledge.
For several years, when people would ask if I still liked working at the bookstore, my response was "it's the least like work of anything else I can think of."
People, there is more to life than Work.
You get a pass on this if your work is saving lives or making people's lives better, but seriously,
most of Work is just work.
And Chris Turner knew this.
While she was an avid book lover and cared a lot about her work...
I often heard her say...
"It's just Books...get over it."
And it took the edge off.
It made us not take ourselves or the above drama too seriously.
A few years before I started working there, Chris, who used to live in Indianapolis, moved back to her home town to be closer to her parents and her family. This meant an hour commute each way, but for years she didn't seem to mind...
because she knew there was more to life than work.
And when I was running back and forth to Lowell to help with selling Mom and Dad's house and then later, when Dad's health was failing, Chris was there with understanding...
reminding me...that "It's just Books..."
giving me permission to focus on what's important.
And finally,
3. "The Good Lord knows..."
Chris was a cancer survivor.
She had a deadly cancer as a younger woman and lived to tell about it.
One day, when she went to the doctor to find out about stomach pain she had been having...none of us expected it to turn out like it did.
Chris was a fighter and fought long and hard against this disease.But, early on, she told me point blank:
"I'm gonna die from this stupid cancer."
But as she told me that she also told me....
"but it's okay. I know where I'm going."
Chris knew what she believed. She believed "the Good Lord knows what he's doing."
She didn't understand why everything happened the way it did, but she had faith and knew where she was going.
I hate that this stupid disease took so much of her energy and robbed her of enjoying her retirement and her "golden" years.
But as I sat next to her at the hospital and held her hand, I could tell, she was at peace.
She lived and died as one who knew where she was going.
And that is a gift.
For her.
And for those who loved her.
Her home going has reminded me once again of what a force Chris Turner was in this life.
Her home going has reminded me to live and work by her "Turnerisms" sayings and beliefs.
And her home going has reminded me of how much I loved this woman, who ended most of her conversations with "Okay, Honey."
It is hard to believe the world will never again hear her leave out the back door,
shouting her trademark goodbye:
"Ta Ta Tu Tu's!!!
See ya tomorrow!"
Farewell, Dear Friend.
You are loved.
Directions to here:
Oh, in case you were wondering, it never escaped me that Chris is a Turner.
I always told her it was why we got along so well. I'm sure in the way, way, back of the family tree, we are family.
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