I sat there staring at the framed photo of dad and I at my high school graduation and with a sigh, picked up a piece of bubble wrap and carefully folded it over the picture. Placing it gently in the box that contained the rest of the pictures I had on shelf over my TV, I noticed it was just after midnight. My eyes were burning and admittedly it was from more than being tired. Several times since mom had come home and broken the news to us that her uncle was unable to help her with enough money to save the house, I had broke down and cried.
Not so much for me and my sister Alicia, but for mom. True this was the only home my big sister and I had ever known, but Mom and Dad had moved into the house, which had belonged to his parents when they had gotten married over fifty years ago. Dad had always spoken of how when Alicia and I got older he would love one of us to take it over and keep it in the family.
Most likely the house would fall to me as Alicia constantly spoke of leaving Rhode Island and heading to New York when she finished school to pursue a career in Mom’s field of advertising. Mom and Dad had hated the idea of their daughter leaving the state and she had promised when she graduated she would spend a year trying to find a job at home before venturing out. But to me, her little brother she confided everything to, she said she was just humoring them. She wanted to try life in the big city and if it didn’t work out she could always come back.
But everything changed a year ago when Dad suffered a brain aneurism while golfing and died right there on the course at the way too young age of forty seven. Initially I thought we would be okay as he had a fair amount of life insurance; enough to cover his funeral as well as pay off the house which is what he had intended. Mom, however, had decided to put us first and paid off Alicia’s last two years of school and my three.
The good thing was we would be able to graduate college and with Mom working and Alicia and I pitching in with part time jobs we would be okay. That seemed the case for the first three months, but then Mom’s long time job went out of business and she lost her job. Mom’s job was partly commission based and the amount unemployment paid her was less than half of her former income.
Alicia picked up an extra shift waitressing and I managed to get a few more hours at Pizza Hut, but things were tough. At one point I offered to take a semester off and work full time, but Mom was so upset I had suggested it I thought she was going to hit me. The good news was last month Mom had gotten hired at another advertising firm-she had already been telling Alicia she could get her a job with her-and was making decent money again.
The bad news was that we were more than seven months behind on the mortgage and hadn’t paid the last two quarters of property taxes. The total Mom was in hock for was over twelve thousand dollars. All her credit cards had been maxed out and even with the new job, the bank wouldn’t help her. Mom owed too much to get a loan anywhere else and she was too new at work to try to ask for any help there.