Those lucky enough to work in tech will almost certainly face life struggles at some point in their lives affecting careers. And those who are really fortunate are able to bounce back and continue on their successful career track after taking time off for family reasons.

During a podcast hosted during OSCON in Portland, Ore. by Libby Clark, editorial director for The New Stack with Meryll Larkin, a senior Linux systems administrator and engineer,  Larkin  discussed how she took time off from her 20-year plus career in open source computing and Linux to care for her husband.

Larkin is currently contracting for a company that she said, “I’m not supposed to name in Seattle.” “It’s a company with a large tech division and I’m doing security compliance, which is mostly running scripts and sending out emails, which is not my favorite kind of work, and they’re letting me update the scripts, which is more my favorite kind of work,” Larkin said.