Tower 2
The first two months of 2021 were business as usual. I was working for Jobe and adventuring with Juliana on the weekends. I met this guy, let’s call him Santabarb, at the end of 2020. He lived a few miles from me, but was moving to Santa Barbara two days after our first date. We hit it off and I began spending weekends in Santa Barbara. On my drive up the 101 I would think to myself, “Is this real life? How did I get here?” He would become a most welcome distraction.
In February Jobe and his family had gone to Arizona for a few weeks, and I was left to hold down the fort. It was a bit hectic, but manageable. For the first time, I was left in charge to run the show and it was empowering. I had Jennifer and Ron to help me with the office and Oscar to help me with the crews. On Friday March 5th around 4pm I was in the office with Ron, Jennifer, and Jobe. Jobe was packing up to leave for a weekend of off roading at Buttonwillow near Bakersfield. He kept finding things to do to keep him there, but I finally kicked him out. “We’ve got this, Jobe. Go enjoy the weekend with your family” and then he left.
I went home had a quiet Friday night and went to sleep. I awoke on Saturday morning at 7:30 to go the bathroom and saw a missed call from Jobe’s Wife, Veronica. I thought she must have butt dialed me, so I ignored it and went to pee. While I was going to the bathroom my phone lit up: “JobesWife” was calling again. My brain said “hm it wasn’t a mistake” and I answered the phone. My entire world came crashing down. “SARAH JOBE DIED!!!” cried Veronica on the other end of the phone. The shock is unlike anything I have ever experienced. This was my California dad, my protector who would help me with anything that I needed. My family away from my family, my safety net. “WHAT?!!” followed my immediate tears. No way, this isn’t possible. He’s only 46 and the burliest, healthiest looking man I have ever seen. He was a presence that commanded any room, a true force to anyone who knew him. This man couldn’t be dead. She explained to me that they were setting up the camp fire and he just dropped, he was gone in seconds. His wife and three incredible children witnessed everything. I can’t remember how the call ended, but we must have said goodbye and I went on to begin a very different Saturday than I had planned for. I walked into the living room towards the balcony in a haze thinking “this is going to be so hard, but you can do it Sarah.” I remembered my co-worker, Bill, was planning on driving up on Saturday to hang out with Jobe and his family. I called him and told him to pull over before delivering this earth-shattering news. We spoke for a few minutes, and I was on to the next call. One foot in front of the other. I spent the weekend in bed and after talking to my coworkers, we decided Monday would be business as usual. There was no time to grieve, we had a business to run.
This would be the hardest thing I have ever had to go through. I have done a lot of thinking about everything that has transpired and I think the lesson in all of this is that I am my own safety. I can do anything. What was coming would be absolute chaos, but I had my weekends in Santa Barbara to keep me grounded. Going to his house was the only place in the world where my brain would turn off the noise and I could relax and not think about my next step.
