SaltWire E-Edition

I never saw this coming

TINA COMEAU

One evening last week my son Justin and I had a familiar conversation.

He wanted the two of us to go for a drive. I needed to finish up something for work first.

“How much longer are you going to be?” he asked. “Ten minutes,” I told him, believing this would be the case.

But it wasn’t.

Forty minutes later I told him, “Okay, the 10 minutes are up.”

I saw him roll his eyes. It’s a look my kids often gave me growing up.

The news never ends and so when Jacob and Justin were younger it wasn’t uncommon for them to spend a lot of hours on the job with me as “family time,” whether it was evenings or weekends. My kids loved it (I’m being completely sarcastic) when they were at home on a Saturday or a Sunday and I announced that they had to come to the office with me because there was no one to stay at home with them.

“How long are you going to be?” one, or both, would always ask. “Not long, maybe 10 or 15 minutes,” was usually my response.

But then I’d get to the newsroom to find an email I wasn’t expecting or a call I needed to return. Or it took longer to finish a story, gather pictures or edit a page that needed to go to press. Usually 10 minutes became an hour.

Even though they didn’t always want to be with me in my surroundings, I was thankful I could spend time with them. It was easier when it was a parade to cover, or a school fair to take pictures at. They had fun. Other times? Not so much.

One time the boys had to drive with me to the Pinkney’s Point wharf because I wanted to see if there were any Hurricane Kylerelated photos to take. The hurricane wasn’t due to hit the area for another day – but for the five minutes we were in the wharf parking lot, not even close to the water, all I heard from Jacob was, “Great, we’re all gonna die thanks to mom’s stupid job.” For a minute I thought I had taken a wrong turn and ended up at Th’YARC theatre, given all of the melodramatics that were going on.

Another time they had to tag along with me on a Sunday afternoon when I left the house to go take a picture of a 23.3-pound lobster.

“How long are you going to be?” one asked, right on cue. “Not long,” I promised. Ten minutes later our van was broken down on the side of the road with a five-kilometre trail of transmission fluid behind us. I clarified my earlier response.

“Ummm, this could take a while,” I told them, as we waited for my parents to come to our rescue since my husband was out fishing. Eventually we made it to the wharf to see the lobster. The boys were impressed so I felt vindicated.

I figured because of the years that I begrudgingly dragged them all over Yarmouth County, or to the newsroom, that the last thing they’d ever want to do is get into the news business.

And for a long time, I was right. But then Jacob had a different thought.

Last month his two-year Radio and Television Journalism Program at NSCC officially ended on paper. A virtual graduation takes place in October. He specialized in filming and editing in his second year of studies.

On Monday of this week he marked his first day on the job in his new career in Halifax as a videographer with Saltwire – my company.

Yep, we’re now co-workers.

I’ll admit, I didn’t see that coming all of those years ago.

I know he’ll bring a lot of creativity and energy to his new job and I’m excited to see what his future holds.

And if, by chance, we’re ever out on the same assignment I’ll make sure not to ask, “How long is this going to take?”

Although I will admit, it would be tempting (insert eye wink instead of eye roll).

COMMUNITY AFTERMATH

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2021-07-21T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-07-21T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://saltwire.pressreader.com/article/281578063681805

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