I sat back and thought “Well Jody, I think you just met your match” Sing thought so to because she leaned over and high fived Ellen, to make the long version short, Jody laid it all out right up front, from his and my first meeting to right this minute, Ellen never interrupted, never frowned, nor looked away from Jody’s eyes, when he was done she started to say something but the food arrived and she and Sing jumped up and let the Waiter in and helped get the table set, we all dug in and soon the conversation was rolling around the table but none was about the subject of the job offer.
After dinner Jody called room service and ordered more beer and a large pot of coffee, we then sat and talked about all of the things Jody had mentioned but in more detail, Ellen was very interested in the how and whys of what we thought was going to happen and the aftermath of whatever event caused it to happen.
That led to a few hours of how, why, etc of the things we thought, believed, to follow the event whatever it was, she asked questions and offered some pretty clear assessments of the global situation as she saw it, to say she was a sharp lady was an understatement, as the evening came to an end Ellen asked if she was still in the running, Jody said no, the running is over, the job is already yours if you want it.
Ellen thought a bit, looked at each of us and said well ok I accept with a few conditions, Jody made the come on motion with his hand, She said, ok I want to pick my nursing staff, and I want a PA, also one thing I think your missing out on, that will be most needed is a small pharmacy, which of course will allow you to stock pile a lot of things you couldn’t get any other way, this one caught us all off guard, we had not even thought of it.
She smiled at our expressions and said, ya kno, I’m not just a pretty face!! Then she said now, for me I want a ¾ ton Suburban diesel with the back set up as a rolling emergency trauma unit, filled with emergency equipment, if the weather is bad I’d like a driver and if the “political” scene sucks maybe an armed guard?
And last but not least, I want to undergo whatever weapons training the rest of the people get and my truck should be set up with weapons racks with locking ability. Also extra fuel tanks and a winch wouldn’t hurt, oh!!
And communications equipment matched with the ranch, and I’d like the clinic to be built like the green houses, bullet proof and able to survive a Tornado and a fairly far away bomb blast, and hardened against that EMP stuff you talked about.
Jody sat back a bit more and smiling asked if there was more, Ellen smiled and said, well yes, I’d like another beer!
Ellen talked about her back ground which we didn’t tell her we already knew. She had always wanted to be a Doc and in high school had taken advanced courses that would help her down the road, she also took courses at the local JR collage, getting some of the basics out of the way, her mind set was that she would have to work her way thru collage so therefore anything she could get out of the way right now would leave more time for a part time job while at the State collage.
When she got to State she took a very full class load on the rest of the basics thinking that since she was just out of high school she was still in a study / homework mode and had no intentions of partying away her freshman year which she paid for with scholarships and money she had saved just for this reason, she had asked nothing from her parents who while willing to pay her way thru school also were willing to let their headstrong daughter do it her way.
In her sophomore year her class load eased enough that with her preplanning and extra class’s she was able to test for and get an EMT license, and a job working an ambulance, she felt that having this kind of experience prior to med school would be worth the lost sleep and it’s weight in gold.
She was very right in that area, the next three years she saw and handled everything from delivering a baby in a speeding ambulance to sealing a sucking chest wound on a gun shot victim and everything in between.
All of which did in fact make med school easier and the extra money helped pay the bills while she studied harder then ever in her life, all in all she was a very extraordinary woman, one who knew her ability’s and her short comings which was one of her reasons for wanting to be more of a country doc, slower pace, better contact with the people around her and most of all a feeling of being a part of the community instead of commuting out of the city as fast as possible to get away from it all.
Her request for a PA was explained when she said she was young, and untested in the real world, and wanted to work with somebody older who had experience and could help her ease into the job, she added that the only thing worse then a bad doctor was one who was not only bad but believed they knew it all.
She also explained that while growing up, her best friends family were members of the LDS church which was rare in the Southern Bible belt, but she learned about preparing for hard times from them, their food storage program was outstanding and while they never spoke of it much outside their own church group, they welcomed Ellen as a second daughter.
Ellen said there was no doom or gloom in that house, but instead a sense of well being due to knowing that whatever might come they could at least feed themselves and some others who might have small children to care for, She was very impressed by this and helped convince her own family that having plenty in the pantry was not only smart but might mean the difference in living or dying.
We sat and listened to her story and all three of us were so very impressed by this young woman who was wise beyond her years, We could see she would be a very important asset to the community and surrounding area, she did ask if things started going really bad would she be allowed to bring her family into the ranch, I looked at Jody and waited to see how the Chairman would handle this, he looked at Sing and I and we were already nodding so his smile told Ellen all was well but his words made it better.
He said, Ellen, we are building a family here, your family is a part of our family, “IF” they chose to be, and if they wish to move down here then I’m sure whatever skills they have can be put to use here. We already knew her parents would fit beautifully.
Her Dad was an Electrician and her mother was a master gardener who grew the most beautiful gardens and while she wasn’t much into canning, but did feed a lot of people with gifts from her garden, both were talents we would be needing, IF they decided to make a move, Ellen would be talking to them when she left here to get her life ready for the move.
It was late when Ellen left for her room, The three of us sat back with big smiles on our faces and felt we had really hit the jack pot, when I asked Sing how she had made the selections we would interview she laughed and said the very first one she settled on was Ellen and after really straining her thru the net with her brothers PC skills she knew this was the one, so she picked two total butt heads to interview against Ellen, this had Jody and I rolling on the floor, we had been had so bad that it was laugh or cry. Either way had the tears rolling, at this we all said good night and headed for bed, it had been a very interesting day.
We decamped the Hotel right after breakfast in the dining room, Ellen joined us, She was planning to be at the ranch in a couple of weeks to help plan out the clinic and to get to know the area and some of the people.
After she left we loaded up and headed for the ranch, on the way I brought up something that had been in my mind since our after dinner BS session with the four of us, My thought was that we should look at maybe building a kind of a homey strip mall sort of place right at the entrance to the ranch.
With the clinic and the vets area and the small Pharmacy why not add a small grocery store which Dog Trot had not had since the old one burned down 15 years before, the idea being to have the ability to buy wholesale for our own storage and also to sell to our town folks at a better price then driving the 25 miles to the city (which wasn’t really a city, just a big town) Jody jumped in with an idea of also having fuel pumps with a small cashiers booth, this way we could have fuel at cheaper prices and the storage for it handy to the trucks that bring it in, our goal was to keep the general public as much in the dark about the ranch plan as possible while passing on savings to our local people.