Chapter 15 — Selling Another Property

A month after the catastrophe passed, the business became markedly slow, and when I was cutting the grass in the grounds, I noticed Lorraine in the car. She’d been in the car for some time, and she wasn’t on the phone either.

‘What’s the matter?’ I asked upon opening the car door.

Lorraine was crying and merely looked up before continuing the tears.

‘I need to know what the matter is, Lorraine, as I can’t do anything if I don’t know?’

Lorraine finally admitted the books weren’t balancing, and that there was more going out than coming in each week. In fact that had been the case for a month or two, and things had fallen into debt.

That was when I sold a second property to keep the Harrogate Arms open. In hindsight, I shouldn’t have done, but ever the wise in hindsight. At that time, the Arms was not only a business – just about – but a home to three dogs, a cat, two children, Lorraine and me, and the two women living rent free in the caravan. They were the first to go. Since Lorraine had brought them here, they put unnecessary stress upon finances, and their contribution to the Arms was, to say the least, woeful. They had both given up trying anyway, and I think if they could have found accommodation earlier, they would have already abandoned the place.

‘I’ll sell the house, Lorraine, but you will have to finish those two, and Alex, Rebecca, Ross and I will all have to take more of a working role to reduce wages.’ There was no other choice. The present situation wasn’t sustainable, and with the onset of winter, things would become even more difficult.

Matters became a bit easier on the wages when one of the chefs went to live in America, and a cleaner went off with some roofer to Gloucestershire or somewhere, and that only left the two in the caravan.

Question: How do you finish the employment of two employees whom you can no longer afford to pay? You could simply give them a couple of weeks’ notice, put an extra week’s money in their pay packet and bid them all the best? Or you could enter a contract with Peninsula Employment Services for £250 a month and be tied in for ten years to give advice on the one remaining employee you had left there? I only found out a year later which option Lorraine chose when I received an Enforcement Notice for £15,000 from Peninsula Employment Services.

At the time I should have known, but I didn’t.

Winter ground on, and the only thing which kept us alive was the delicious carvery we all presented on a Sunday. Christmas was good, too, but with the advent of January, things became dire, and the strain became almost unbearable. There was a continual cold and sharp frost, and the building was old, and the heating drank any available money in kerosene. It was a losing task, and even after selling another property, things started to snap.

I had to continue working, as that was the only means with which to see out each week. By this time Kev and his son, Ethan, had taken up residence in the caravan, and they helped out enormously, and I think without their help, I would have capitulated sooner.