Robert: “I have done maintenance and cleaned walkways and bathrooms in Gatlinburg for about nine years. Tonya and I have already worked 80 hours this week, including 18 hours on New Year’s Eve. We are tired. There used to be at least four people doing this job, but now it’s just the two of us and sometimes her son. This job consumes our life.

People have changed during the last three or four years. After the fires around Gatlinburg, everyone was stressed from losing houses and dealing with insurance. Then COVID hit and blew it out of the water. Everyone is so stressed out about things going on that they don’t know how to handle it. They get angry and regularly cuss at us when the bathrooms are closed for cleaning. There are trash cans everywhere, but they don’t use them. They leave their trash anywhere. They are on vacation and don’t think about who has to clean up after them.I am sure people don’t act like this at home.

We want to make everything right for people’s vacations. We don’t get to take vacations because we are always working, even on holidays, because there’s no one else to do this. Hopefully, things slow down in January and February.

My mama taught me life is about character. You work hard for what you get. If you don’t work for it, then you don’t need it.”

Tonya: “We have a large area to keep clean, but our bathrooms are the cleanest public restrooms in Gatlinburg and the stores send people here. When it’s busy, we try to clean the bathrooms every hour. We drink lots of coffee and keep going. We want to hire more people, but in the last two years only one person put in an application. No one wants to clean up trash and vomit. There is literally crap and pee on the floor. How do you miss the big hole in the toilet? But people do. Women are worse than men about dropping toilet paper on the floor.

We try to help people out. But some leave their manners and common sense at home and are rude and mean. Everything is about them. As we clean the mirrors, some people fling water from their wet hands on the glass, right in front of us. There is nothing we can do about it, so we go with the flow to survive. We take pride in our job. It’s the way we were raised, but sometimes it’s hard.

Robert and I have known each other for 25 years. We were best friends and got engaged on Christmas night. My mom is a lung cancer survivor and lives with us. They removed a mass the size of my fist last year. Robert has COPD. We stick together to get through life. We are simple, we just need a roof, food, and a way to get to work.

We like meeting new people. Many are nice and make our job worthwhile. We also try to make life a little better for the other workers around here.”