Phone call at 7.10pm Thursday 26th July 2018
Him – “Will you be CEO? I need to step down for 12 months, sort my head out, spend time with my family”.
Me – “Well, yeah, we talked about it, what’s the financial implications?”
Him – “None”
Me – “Well, don’t put me on companies house, you need to stay as the Director on there, then we can work out how you support me going forward,OK? I don’t want to be financially responsible for any debts, right? Put it in writing and I’m good to start on Monday” (I knew there had been a VAT inspection with a £500K summons)
Him – “Yeah, sure, no I get that, that’s not what I’m after, I want someone to run my business that I can trust, I knew when I met you that you could do it, I’ll announce it on Monday and step down”
Me – “OK, that’s great, but I’d need you to support me going forward”
Him – “Yeah sure, right see you Monday, I’m off to make tea”
Me – “Great, speak tomorrow then”
Phone call at 7.30am Friday 27th July 2018
“It’s XXX, he’s dead, he’s dead, I can’t believe it, he committed suicide last night”
My phone went mad for the next three hours, texts, phone calls, voicemails.
I drove into the office in a blur, dressed in black as I was on my way to a funeral in Leeds. Everyone was in shock, shaking, crying, chain smoking. We need to lock up the office and go home, we cannot function like this.
I rang the board members, leaving messages for them to call me immediately…I rang his wife, left a message for her not bother with anything at work, we’d sort it between us. Locked up the office, messages changed on the answerphone, I was sure I had phone calls all the way to Leeds.
My mind far away from the funeral that day, then the drive to pick up my Mum after surgery. No phone calls for 24hrs. Surreal.