Chapter 20: We Must Stay Busy
I only missed a week's work at Family Dollar. Mary Jo had earned more than me, so it was crucial to keep employment. Jewel dropped everything and stayed with Tara and Travis during the week. I came home on the weekends. Amazing, caring, strong woman. She had been a nurse. Jewel and her husband, Bill, are Home with Mary-Jo. I remember the first drive back to Columbus. I went into an absolute rage with God, lasting 20 minutes. I bent the steering wheel. After being quiet, I sincerely apologized. I couldn’t be angry at my Strength. Looking back, the job was good for me. My advice to anyone going through trials, be it grieving, divorce, illness, financial ruin, or drug abuse is this. Keep busy. One cannot talk in platitudes about God or anything else, doesn't help. When one sits and dwells, misery comes. That first week back, an elderly black woman said to my assistant, "Something terrible has happened to that man." She just knew, a spiritual gift. My assistant explained my wife had suddenly died.
Time went on. Christmas came. I tried to keep everything as normal as possible. Put up the outside lights and decorate the tree. Mary Jo loved Christmas. Her joy and energy had always permeated the holidays. Christmas proved to never be the same. Tara graduated from high school. Travis from eighth grade. The reason funeral homes sell furniture is that families want to eliminate memories. I sold everything. I gave the property away and made no profit to eliminate debt. Our home was English Tudor, all brick, built in the1930s. Dad designed the floor plan, and the cement holding the brick was unique. I have never seen anything like it. The cement protruded several inches, evidently, this is a lost art. I remember walking through our home the last time. I had been born here, and we’d raised our children here. I was comfortably numb, my theme song from Pink Floyd. This picture was taken years later, the current owners have let our home go into dis-array.
Mary Jo and I had visited my niece and her husband in Gahanna. She’d loved the upscale neighborhood and wished someday we would move there. Travis and I did. Tara moved in with Tracy and started Ohio State. The apartment Tracy and I shared was much closer to college than our new home. Tracy's student loans paid the rent. I had taken the twenty thousand from the life insurance and put a down payment on a one hundred fifty thousand dollar duplex. My tenants' rent paid the mortgage. Months earlier, I had no idea how all would work out. My income was cut by more than half. Prayers had been answered, and our family was on a new path. I accepted a much better-paying job as a manager at Sprint. Over the next several years, life experiences would unfold which led to my current understanding. I would lose the property plus everything I owned. Dave was right, nothing bothers me.
40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE0hRJrqtjN
40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTjSjnIRqPy
40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSZmyhl6EcP
40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRwI5OqxW97
40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5ZdhBBd0NE
