Zeliha Caputo loves her job. It’s obvious she’s having a great time as she interacts with customers; laughing as she cuts hair and provides scalp massages.
It’s been months since Zeliha was behind the chair at Zeliha’s Barber Shop, located at 1218 Wabash Ave. And now she’s making up for lost time by enjoying every single moment.
“I’m in heaven right now,” she says with a laugh. “After three and a half months I feel so good mentally because I was thinking I was never going to walk and I was pushing my body and I was just praying and a lot of people prayed and then I am back.”
The end of 2015 was life changing for Zeliha, who was involved in a serious car accident after closing up her barber shop on the evening of December 15, 2015. At the time of the accident she was pinned in the car and soon airlifted to a hospital in Indianapolis. She went through multiple surgeries to repair her many injuries including two broken vertebrae in her neck, a broken left femur, shattered bones below both knees, a broken left wrist, a broken collar bone, a broken left hip, a broken bone in her sternum and two broken ribs.
Still not 100% Zeliha is working part time at the barber shop and trying to fit in as many people during that time as possible. On a Monday morning in March she has three gentlemen waiting in line for her military cuts, one of the many things she is known for around town. One customer comments that his time in the chair is like “therapy” and that he wouldn’t go to anyone else, calling Zeliha “like family”.
“Everybody has been there for me,” Zeliha says. “Some of them, for the three, four months (she was recovering) they were waiting on me, they say, I am not going to go anywhere, I am going to wait.”
Zeliha is back behind the chair on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday 9am to 3pm. For more information call Zeliha’s Barber Shop at (812) 234-7613.
For the full story on the accident in the Tribune Star click here.
