There’s a reason I gave the name Candace to the leading lady in “Lord of the Files,” one of the cornerstone stories in Dead Park Plaza. Simply put: Candace is a survivor.
I don’t mean in the normal ways society labels people as survivors. Very specifically, she’s a survivor of the corporate cubicle jungle.
Candace came in every day, Monday through Friday, and sat a desk or two away from me. Monday mornings, the fun began in earnest around 10. That’s when her biggest VIP customer called to tell Candace everything she did wrong with the order he just received.
Not that she, personally, committed every – or even the lion’s share – of errors. But he took it out on her anyway.
Candace juggled phone calls, emails, and faxes for 8-10 hours every day. She did it all with grace. True grace under fire. She might argue with me over that, but I know what I saw. She was unflappable. Indefatigable. She never gave up.
Until the company gave up on her.
I already shared the story about the Queen of Throat Punch Thursday and the day they let her go. The day Candace was let go, well, that was just as bad. Contrariwise, the day our boss was let go… well, there was catharsis.
I was the one to walk Candace out that last day. We’ve caught up here and there over the years, but as of this writing it’s been a while. She once tried her hand at modeling, and one of the photos she took was morphed into a book cover for me.
It was an honor to go to war with that lady. That’s why I chose to honor her, naming the heroine in one of the most absurd stories I ever wrote after a lady who truly could survive an office at war and live to tell about it.