About a dozen guests gathered at Barnhouse restaurant Tuesday for a special send off. After 27 years of waiting tables at the restaurant, Connie Silvis hung up her apron.
“She’s really special to us,” said Barnhouse owner Vicki Karamajanes. “It’s so well-deserved.”
Just an hour earlier, Silvis had finished her final shift without much fanfare and thinking that was the end of it, although owner George Karamajanes had given her a hug before she left. It was an anti-climactic ending to her quarter of a century service to the restaurant, and she had hoped it would be acknowledged in some way.
“I didn’t even get a cake,” she joked, admitting she felt bad about thinking that later.
But when Vicki called her asking her to come back in to help out with a big party that had come into the restaurant, Silvis agreed and returned, dressed in her uniform.
That’s where the surprise comes in. When she walked into the restaurant for the second time that day, she was greeted by her family, friends and coworkers, food, gifts and even that cake she was hoping for.
Silvis’s retirement comes six months after her husband retired. They can spend time together and travel and of course have more time with the family, she said.
“I want to be able to spend more time with my grandkids.”
She and her husband also travel and plan to go to Disney in November.
Vicki Karamajanes said that while she is happy for Silvis in her retirement, she will also miss her. Over the years, Silvis has become like a sister to her, and she was always special to Karamajanes’s dad, who saw her as a second daughter.
Silvis, she said, is a humble person and so making the celebration a surprise was necessary.
“I wanted her to appreciate herself,” she said, adding that Silvis is the kind of person who would drop everything to help someone. “She was great to me.”
Silvis said she will miss her job and much more.
“I’ll miss my customers. I’ll miss the girls, everyone I work with are like my family,” she said.
