Monday, September 21, 2009

Sunshine Cleaning: The real story

A view of Downtown Seattle (and, beyond that, ...Image via Wikipedia

Have you seen that movie “Sunshine Cleaning”? It is pretty good. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0862846/

You know what else? It is a real story. A woman I work with Stacy Haney and her friend Theresa Borst are the real women who started Bioclean in the greater Seattle-Everett area.
Stacy had told me the story when I asked her what she had done while she was laid off and how she got into working in Haz Mat at our current employment. She explained that she found out that when there is a murder, or a dead body is found it is usually up to the family to clean up the mess. She and her friend felt like this was being victimized twice, first the loss of a loved one and then have to clean up a real nasty mess. They were out of work so started this business. Yes she had all kinds of horror stories that would give anybody the willies!

Today, on seeing the video Sunshine Cleaning on Sunday I mentioned it to her and she said “yes that movie is about me”. I said “no way”, she said “way”. I got the impression she might be a tad miffed about the whole deal too. Here she does an interview for NPR: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1123029

Then someone else hears it and gets a revelation, they write of a screenplay and BOOM, they make money off of YOUR life story. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101794925&ps=rs
It seems weird from the standpoint that maybe she thought she was doing something a little unusual but not enough to make a Hollywood movie out of (yes of course it was embellished). It got me thinking about everyday lives and writing about them.
I asked Stacy to remind me today why she closed it down and went back to work for someone else. She said it was too much, the hours were terrible and it was either the job or her family. Good choice Stacy.
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