I have to say that when I returned off the road in May of this year, I never imagined I would be trading in my microphone for a Furniture Manager badge. I spent the summer at home, and it was someone very dear to me that called me up one day and said "what are you gonna do this fall if your not returning to the Circus?" I had not given it much thought as I was going to continue playing my one nighters and continue pushing myself as an Entertainer. Well, she proceeded to tell me she knew this very nice guy that had a heart for God, and needed help in his furniture stores called "Rest on 7" as he had plans to open one up in Joplin Missouri, in hopes to succeed in that area after the wake of the Tornado there. I took his number at her prompting, and called him. I didnt reach Travis at first, but then after taking time out of my day to stop by his store in Springfield (because I wanted to see what kind of operation he was responsible for) and see if he was available to visit about his needs. He was not there but did return my call sometime later where we visited in length about what he wanted to acomplish in Joplin. Well I agreed to meet him and his little guy he had as his "Regional Manager" Eric, in Joplin to see what they had in the works. Well after spending the better part of the day there, I was offered a deal. To come in and "run" that store for him, make it work and they would pay me 5% of whatever I sold, and 1% of anything the store did. Well, that 1% was I guess "forgot", until I brought it back up some two months later, In any event, I agreed to make it work. I started my mission there September 15th. It was my goal to help the people of Joplin rebuild, at a good price and become part of the community. I spent the night there in the make shift apartment we made in the building at least 4 nights per week. Yes, this was quite the commitment but I agreed to do it to get it going. I was told that it wouldnt be long he would figure out how to make the changes he needed to in the Springfield store and I would end up there managing that one close to home, and well into this deal, it was also told to me that he liked my style and business sense, and by the end of December, one way or another I needed to have someone in mind to take over the Joplin store, as he wanted me to run all three of them. This was in part to his (the owner) leaving Rest on 7's daily operations and taking on a position with a new Mattress Company out of California. He also wanted to have someone with a little more maturity and business savy to run the three of them. This was all fine, and I am a man of my word and I was gonna make this happen, and make my part successful. Now, in hindsight, the fact there was no capital in the company, that he was attempting to find a "money man" and his taking another job, I should have seen the writing on the wall. I did not know, nor was I ever told that they were in such a financial drowning. So, here I am spending days and nights at this store. the first month I made maybe a few hundred bucks, but again, I knew it was a process and was going to pay off down the road as a good business venture. I have to tell you a little bit about this building I was staying in. The buiding that housed the store and the apartment was built in 1960 and was a Cadillac dealership for years, then it became Joplin Pool and Spa, and then right before we moved in, it was a warehouse for a local prominant personal Injury attorney. While we were in the builing, the owners continued to use part of the warehouse as storage for 6 fatality accident vehichles, along with a motorcycle that was burned up. YES, these are all vehichles someone died in!!! There was never a good feeling in that building, always a dark spirit. We prayed over the building at times and I would often feel someone touching me or breathing on me when I slept there at night. People would see things at times too, but it was one day about the end of October that really made me feel strange. there was a little 5 year old girl in the store with her mother, and while her mother was off int he other part of the store, she wanted to come back and talk to me. She looked at me and said "Do you see him?" and I am thinking to myself, this kid is gonna freak me out I can already tell. She says, "There he is, he just went under that chair! He's a ghost and he is mad!!" Ok, I am thinking to myself this kid needs to go find her mama and leave LM alone. She said, "there he goes, now he is under the bed" (As you will read on about my accident, I will tell you this bed "he" was under, was where I got hurt) so after she said this with all the seriousness and little 5 year old can muster, I told her she needed to go to her mama and stay there. Ok, so I see things in this building, doors open, noises are made, and I am trying to keep telling Jesus he better have all of his angels on duty in this place Im sleeping!! So as we proceed with business, it is November 9th around 130 in the afternoon and we have a young couple in the store with thier two little girls, David the young man working for me is in the warehouse and I am looking at a mattress that was moved earlier in the day by David, that was not put back. So I go up there next to the windows, and prepare to put the mattress back in its place. At this point I am standing about two feet from the window, I grab ahold of the mattress, when all of a sudden I lose my balance as if someone pushed me, and I fell backwards and somehow the window came down with me. I am not sure how the windo broke, but it did and I ended up with shards of non-tempered glass falling on my right side of my body. When I fell backwards, my head ended up hitting the bed frame causing a major gash on my head, the glass came down on my right forearm severing it to the bone, and my hand, well the orthopedic surgeon called it a "de-gloving"..... When I realized what had happened, I just sat there and looked at my hand, thinking that this just isnt a good thing. The gentleman in the store with his family who spoke mostly Spanish, asked me if I was ok, and I said no, but I was concerned about his wife and babies, where are they, I asked. I had just seen those little girls walk past me and I was afraid for them and their safety. Once I found out they were in the clear, I stood up and grabbed a shoe matt or covering we put on the mattresses to keep the dirt off, and I wound it around my hand. I walked to where David was, and yelled at him accross the warehouse as he was using an electric blower to clean the floor. "CALL AN AMBULANCE", is what I yelled, but with his look of WHAT?!?!, I said nevermind and went back in and called myself. Lucky for me, the ambulance garage was close enough for me to throw a baseball and hit. My two ambulance personel, Amanda 1 and 2, took good care of me and the bright light I got to see was likely just the light on the abulance ceiling, but I skipped "out of town" from that time to the moment they wheeled me into the tent at St Johns. Yes, I said tent. The main hospital was totaled after the May tornado in Joplin, so I asked to go to St Johns tent. If it was good enough for others, it is good enough for me. It was there that the ER doctor decided it was better for her not to do any work to my hand, as it was bleeding severely and had too much damage. They called Dr. Bryan Ipsen, a local Orthopedic surgeon to come evaluate it and do the work on my hand, arm and head. God up to this point was always with me and brought me so much comfort and I believe god guided this young surgeons hands as he was worried there was not enough to work with and I would likely need skin graphs, etc. Well it has been nearly 6 weeks and my hand looks beautiful. My head and my arm too are looking great and have healed up nicely. I still have no feeling in my arm and I am hoping that it comes back someday soon. The cold weather we now have is really hard on my hand and causes alot of pain. Shortly after my accident, and not hearing from the owner Travis from Rest on 7, or his little man Eric the Regional Manager, I finally placed an actual call to him to ask about workers compensation, because afterall, this is a very bad accident. Well, I was informed that despite the law saying you must carry it if you are in business and have employees, I was told that he decided to operate all of his locations with NO Insurance. So needless to say, you know the rest. I hardly ever heardfrom anyone to check my progress, but they did make a nice gesture to pay me $500.00 per week for the three weeks I would be off, which was nice, especially since I had given them so much of my heart, soul and time for free months prior. Since then, they have never offered to help me in any way, and their way of saying thank you was for me to clean up a filthy mess this last week after they locked thier doors, and cleaning out all of the showrooms. Since there is another business person involved in Joplin, those people came down from thier company in Kansas City to sell off all of the product that was in the Rest on 7 warehouses, to pay off the Rest on 7 debt to them. I want people to know this, I think these people have a good heart, I think. That is up to God to decide and judge, not me. I do not feel the love or respect I feel I deserved and maybe its because they just doidnt know how to go out of business with any class, but I pray that they make it through thier struggles and i hope god keeps working on me to have a little more forgiveness. I will now live with a scared body, lots of lingering pain, and dreams that will stop I hope someday of the accident. So, if you didnt get your mattress, I am so very sorry, I did all I could to get it fixed. Dont feel bad if the owners havent called you, they havent called me either, very sad. On top of the thousands owed to customers, the thousands in my medical bills, and the thousands of dollars owned to other debtors, I hope they "Rest well knowing", whatever they really know.
