Erv’s vs Mother Nature – The Renovation Story Part 2

It comes as no surprise that Erv never wanted me to go into the family restaurant business, so it's really not a stretch to imagine that he was absolutely against me expanding the building.  But every Friday night, we faced brownouts on the electricity.  The toilets backing up became such a regular thing that I would tell salespeople if they saw me with a pipe, wrench or plunger in my hand, they should run the other way because I was in a bad mood.

In my mind, if we were going to stay in business, the building upgrades had to be done. So, like any good daughter through the ages, I simply ignored my father's objections and continued to work with architects to plan the building additions.

My dad decided to stake his loudest vocal objections on the tree growing on the hill. If you knew the old building, you knew that there was a large hill where the West dining room now stands. And on that hill was a beautiful, very old oak tree. My dad decided that this oak tree was the number one reason I could not complete the addition to the building.

So, as my planning continued with the architects, the builders, and the city, Erv continued to stress, "But the tree!” Well, it appears Mother Nature was on my side and the side of progress.

On Labor Day Weekend 2009, as was usual for the time, we were closed on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. On Saturday night, a large, sheer wind came down Ryan Road and took out the tree. I declared it as fate. Mother Nature gently set the tree carefully on the roof, disturbing a single shingle and one branch on the electrical line to the building, without disrupting power to the restaurant. When I checked on the building Sunday morning, I discovered the tree was down. Because it was touching the electric lines, We-energies completed the removal of the tree. I looked at my dad and said, "It's a sign, Mother Nature wants the addition".

After the addition was completed in the Fall of 2010, my dad got to see it full of customers and not just on Friday nights. He used to walk behind me as I would wander through the dining room and say to the customers, "I told her she should have made it bigger" as he would laugh, proud of what we had accomplished together.