Once Bitten...

Last week I thought that I had settled on a person to be our new housekeeper. She is an older lady but seemed very fit and active, a sporty looking pixie style haircut made her look neat and together. She lives near the inn and has her own car. She has no problem with being called in to work on a moments notice and wanted the work because she was bored at home. I was happy to have found her and she comes with good long term references from other housekeeping work in the area.

I called to arrange for her to come for her first day of training here and as we talked I heard a note of reserved hesitation in her voice. Then out it came. She had just broken her left arm in two places and was in a cast for several weeks. She asked to be allowed to start work despite her injury, but after some consideration I had to tell her that I could not hire her as the job does involve carrying vacuum cleaners and heavy breakfast trays and moving some furniture around to clean. I did not want her healing process to suffer because of the work. So I was back to square one with another week of advertising.

The search for good help is not easy, especially in the mountains of western Maryland. When you find a diamond amongst the lumps of coal you had better look after it well. We need to find a housekeeper who produces sparkling results despite those who leave their rooms looking like a tornado has hit it.

My cousin Susan told me to watch the new episodes of “Upstairs Downstairs” in which the new upstairs inhabitants of the house at 165 Eaton Place are hiring a whole household of servants including a housekeeper. I felt very glad not to be in that position. Finding one person is quite enough hand wringing for me.