TIFU by destroying my aunt’s sourdough starter she’d kept alive for years

This happened three days ago, and I’m still a bit embarrassed by it.

I volunteer at my aunt’s little bakery shop every weekend. No big deal; just prep work and attending to customers. Cleaning the bakery counter is one of my regular duties, which includes taking the sourdough starter from the refrigerator so it warms up before she comes in at nine. This particular sourdough starter is about four years old, and she has nicknamed it Gerald. It even has its own shelf.

I am no baker, but I know enough to be dangerous.

And that day, at 6:30 AM, I arrived tired and operating on autopilot. I did my regular sweeping routine to get ready for opening. I wiped down the countertops and organized the refrigerator, disposing of anything that looked like it belonged to a museum collection.

You get the idea.

Gerald was shoved way into the back of the fridge behind a sheet pan. He was sitting inside a regular old mason jar without any kind of labeling on him whatsoever. He smelled quite bad if I am being honest. I dumped him out, cleaned the jar, and placed it into the dish rack to dry, patting myself on the back for having done such a good job.

Not even ten minutes later, I went to go retrieve Gerald to begin warming him up, only to find out that he was missing. The realization of how bad things could be hit me almost immediately.

I began sending frantic texts to my aunt, who got right back to me in record time, which may I add is the fastest she has ever gotten back to me considering once I sent her a message informing her that I got into a car accident.

She was not angry in the sense that I had heard her yell before; rather, she seemed calm in her anger. All she did was say the word "okay" in a very controlled tone of voice.

The next two hours I spent assisting customers and feeling like I was standing in the principal’s office waiting for my turn.

After a bit of staring at the empty jar, she sighed “well” and went on with her day. She did look very professional about it with customers around. But I know that she felt disappointed. As a side comment she told me that her starter used to be part of her friend’s, who owned a fairly old one, and she’d nurtured her starter for years, but “it takes some time to build something up.”

She doesn’t blame me in the least. She acknowledged that those things do happen and it was all her fault - as she forgot to label it. But she said it in the way where you can tell the person is being gracious and you don’t really deserve it.

So I decided to order her a book about sourdough and a pretty new jar as an apology. She answered with the thumbs up emoji, which coming from my aunt is kind of hard to decipher.

Anyway. Please label your starters. And anything else in a kitchen that can potentially confuse someone. Assume everyone helping you in there are complete idiots.

TL;DR: Cleaned out the bakery fridge on autopilot, accidentally threw away my aunt’s four-year-old sourdough starter, she was gracious about it in a way that made me feel worse.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​