My father has owned his own screen-printing and signage business since the late seventies. He has worked exceedingly hard for it, work that paid off when the business was very successful in the mid-eighties (I think). Anyway, he's made and broken a few partnerships along the way, struck up deals for machinery etc. which have fallen through starting about the late nineties.
Recently, he had an investor-guy buy and let him use some "direct-to-garment" ink-jet t-shirt printers, which weren't promoted as much as they could be. The guy withdrew from the partnership, and left my dad alone. Also, my dad hasn't been quite on top of bill-paying as he should have been; it is hard when you are the sole-person in the company - advertising, design, production, financial, and just about everything else. Some things would inevitably be overlooked. I've been a little too hard on him. And I'm ashamed of that.
Anyway, he just got in too far over his head. Simply. He just couldn't make it any more. So for the past month, we've been moving all of his stuff into storage units and friendly friends' shops... so much stuff. He's also been really depressed; it's hard to see something fail after you've put your whole life into it.
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My mother's parents are very old, and very frail. They've been like this for quite a while - for the past ten years or so. Since two summers ago, we've been in the process of selling their house in Colorado (to my cousin's family) and keeping them in a care facility. They don't like it there, especially my grandmother. They've been used to living with money to spare, but now at the end of their lives, there's hardly enough to last a lot longer.
My grandmother (Nanny) has been doing extremely poorly for the past couple of weeks. She's eaten nothing, she's drunk nothing. She's on liquid morphine. We were told this on Monday afternoon.
Later in the afternoon on Monday, my aunt called us again, telling us that she had passed away. She passed away in her morphine-induced slumber while my grandfather was in the dining area getting dinner, and discovered my a nurse making the rounds.
Fortunately, my grandparents already had their will drawn up, their funeral plans made and paid for, and their plots picked out and paid for; the process will be a quick one (hopefully). My mother flew out to Denver yesterday afternoon, and my father and I will drive there on Saturday (and I'll get some driving hours in). The funeral will be held on Tuesday. We will drive back on Wednesday.
This could be devastating to us, but it is not. We know that she's so much happier now than she ever could be here. We are happy for her for that. My grandfather is grief-stricken, and rightly so, but we hope he'll see how much of a blessing it is.
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Then for the other good news. My dad was out of a job, and looking for work. Fortunately, a few weeks ago, BYU (the local university) was advertising an open position: Bookshop Screenprinter. Just the blessing we needed. My dad applied for the job, and was notified yesterday for an interview today, at 11:00, right now. I sincerely hope that he will get the job - he needs it, the family needs it, and hopefully the Lord wants it. That's all we do now, it have faith.
So, though my life should suck, it doesn't.
3 comments:
I respect you so much.
I marvel at your optimism. If your life doesn't suck, then mine most definitely doesn't. My condolences about your grandmother, and I really hope your dad gets the job, too! :)
Well, update: The day after we got back from Denver, BYU called my dad and told him thanks, but no dice. This is truly depressing, but we just gotta stick it out. Currently he is still processing jobs at the shop of one of his friends. That's in Payson (looooong ways away). We don't know what he'll do now... Our garage and two storage rental units are packed to overflowing with his STUFF, the majority of which was purchased at yard sales and which my dad has held on to "in the event that we might need it." That hasn't happen yet, so we hope we can get some money for the more useless items -- at a yard sale.
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