Lent, Day 29

Long day at work today, 11 hours. It was a 14-page paper. I still have 6 pages left to proof & finish. We didn't even get the first page out until 1 p.m. Almost 2 hours behind schedule.

Just one little thing & then I'm headed to bed. I got a phone call from someone in Malad wanting to know if it was too late to get an obituary in. The obituary page was done. I said no, because the policy is that we try to get an obituary in. I gave the woman the options, she could do a death notice for free, or she could do a full obituary with picture & it is $4.50 a column inch. She said she would give the woman's daughter the information. A little while later, I got a call from the woman's daughter. She said that the Malad paper doesn't come out until Thursday & her mother's funeral was Wednesday. She decided to do a death notice. That was a relief to me, we were already waiting for Mondell Nash's obituary & picture from Webb Funeral Home. We weren't sure if we were going to have enough room for another obituary.

I finally went to lunch at the Subway. I had debated about going to Stokes grocery store & grabbing a small deli sandwich. But I decided Subway sounded better. I was hungry & thought a 6-inch sandwich with extra toppings sounded better than a 3-inch plain meat & cheese sandwich. But I had also decided I wouldn't do a full meal, cuz I just wanted a soda refill. You have to buy the full meal of 20-ounce drink & either cookies or chips to get cookies at a reduced price. I said I learned another new thing today. The lady that waited on me was new, at least someone I'd never seen before. She asked what the first new thing I learned was. I told her the Malad paper comes out on Thursday. She asked if I was from Malad. I said no, & asked if she was from Malad. She said yes. I said I work for the Preston paper & we had got a death notice from Malad. She wanted to know who died. I told her Rula Thomas. She said she knew her, she'd worked for her. She knew she'd been in the hospital. She wanted to go see her & she didn't want to. So she'd sent her a dozen pink roses for Valentine's Day. I was able to tell her the funeral & viewing information. She said she'd heard she had cancer. I said no, the daughter said they didn't know what it was. I'd asked what the cause of death was because sometimes they put what the person died from in the obituary.

I thought how interesting that was. I usually don't go nattering on about publication dates & spouting information about obituaries to total strangers. But this woman may have got the information too late to pay her respects because our paper doesn't come out until Wednesday. If she works at the Subway during the day, she would have missed the Tuesday evening viewing & Wednesday funeral.

Lent, Day 23

Just another manic Monday. It's almost bedtime. I went to bed last night at 2. I foolishly picked up an Anne Perry book to "look" at. The next time I surfaced, it was 1:45 a.m. I woke up at 8. I'm tired, I pulled a 10 hour day today. Just as I was leaving work tonight, before I shut the computer down, I checked the email, don't know if that was a smart idea. Ron Smellie (mortician) had sent a death notice. I saved that page until the very last. I was worried about Junior Miss, so I actually saved Junior Miss, which was on the same document as the obituaries, until last. Got some good corrections from the ladies that do Junior Miss though.

I left a note for Rod & Bob (editors) about the death notice & will try to get in there as close to 9 as I can in the morning to make that change. The kicker on the front page has a picture & page to an article that was pulled.

I told Jim Anderson about the sibling party at Juniper Take Out on the first Saturday in May. He offered their "party" house. I told him to talk to Donna & I'd bring it up with Mother.

Another Monday

It happened again. A death notice showed up just as a hole showed up! I never plan these holes, they just kind of show up when they are needed.

Today I had TWO, yes two, ladies to help with the paper. Besides that, the paper was chuck full of ads. Kelly bragged that HE packed the paper tight just so it wouldn't be too hard for us to edit. I let Vicki Atkinson, new co-worker, & Karen Naylor, she used to work at The Citizen, my two helpers today, proof & Karen made some of the changes on the computer. At 4 o'clock Karen & Vicki had caught up to me. They had seen all 18 pages, minus the 3 full page ads. So, we let Karen go home. I told Kelly we would be through by 6. Vicki stayed & I'm sure glad she did. She was my runner, she did the checking on facts, spellings & signed us off on the pages. And yes, we were finished by 6!! So, cool, that's the first time we've been done that soon all year!! A cause to celebrate.

We have to sign off when we release a page to go to the next step. I was the second copy editor today. It reminded me of Mrs. Pollifax & the Second Thief or Tony Hillerman's The First Eagle. In both cases it was the second one that got caught, hehe.

Anyway, about 4:30, we got to a sports page that had a 1 column by 2-3 inch hole that Bob (Merrill, assistant editor) had put a box & instructions to use an in-house ad. I had just scrolled down to it & was commenting to Vicki that we needed to find something to fill this. I hadn't even finished making my comment when Stacey (Comeau, ad salesman) came around the corner with a fax in her hand & said, "I don't know if you guys have seen this obituary. It was on the fax machine." I just sat there, took the obit & said, "No, we haven't seen it." I said to Vicki, "This happens all the time. And it never ceases to amaze me."

I went in to the editors' office & told them we had a space to fill & we had an obituary just handed to us. Neither Rod (Boam) nor Bob batted an eye. Bob said, "Well, then fill it."

It fit, perfectly, of course. Just blows me away. I never expect it. If we plan it, it never happens. I hadn't even started on the obituary page this morning about 10 when Doug Webb called & said there was an obituary. He promised it just after lunch. At about a quarter to 3, I told Vicki & Karen that we still hadn't got the obituary. Before I could finish what I was going to say, Jessi interrupted & said Webb's didn't get to dictate when we finished the paper. That if they didn't have the obit there by 3 p.m., they were out of luck. Vicki called Webb's at 10 to 3 & told them that we had to have the obituary by 3. Jordan said he only had 2 paragraphs left to type. OMG, that was a humongous obituary. We had to split cards of thanks & move 2 of them over to another page.

I was getting so agitated, I was ready to bitch slap someone.

Fall out from death notice

I found out the family of Jon Roley was upset that we published Jon's death notice & wouldn't publish an obit. I guess I wasn't "led" after all. Oh, well, it saved them some money.

Amy got a call & had to leave really fast yesterday. She called me tonight, after she texted me at 11:35 p.m., to see if I was still awake. She had left the crockpot on & they weren't going to be home until tomorrow.