WEST READING, Pa. - The R.M. Palmer factory continues to be a scene of devastation and tragedy.
“It was so unreal,” said Sue Yelk, of Reading. “I could not believe what it looked like.”
But before Friday, it was a place where Yelk gave nearly three decades of her life.
“I cleaned, I packed, I did just about everything," she said. “I worked in both buildings but building one, most of the time, where they did the hollow bunnies.”
Does she remember her and her coworkers fostering a lot of camaraderie?
“Oh yeah. There has to be,” Yelk said. “We gotta stand against management.”
Now she finds herself standing again, but this time in the reshaped shadow of her former work home, watching and waiting for a friend.
“This is where I want to be because I know the one person that’s in there,” she said.
Sometimes your coworkers become a little more than that.
“The families. I can’t imagine what they’re going through if they know that their family member is in there and they’re not hearing anything,” Yelk said.
And sometimes in the face of unexpected tragedy, you find yourself standing watch outside your former work home.
“I’m still friends with a lot of them,” Yelk said. "A lot of them. On Facebook. I see them down here every night. I’m waiting here for them.”
