Chapter 26

Three years have passed. Karen is finishing her doctorate and my job at Dad’s new plant has been a success.

Our college has offered Karen an instructor’s position which she is considering. Dad is wanting me to move up in the company. We are discussing what to do. We love our town and our home but realize that moving on may be a necessity for either of us to progress.

Our situation just became a bit different. Dad really wants me and Karen has been offered an assistant professorship at the university in the same larger town where BG is located! We spent some time praying about what to do and finally decided to go see Karen’s parents. Her folks had been a practical source of advice for us both.

We pulled in to see them for a long weekend.

We talked with Karen’s parents. Missus Mason hadn’t worked in many, many years. Mister Mason had become vested for his retirement and it wouldn’t get much better if he stayed longer. We suggested that they take our house selling their house. I thought that Mister Mason could get something if he wanted to work. That was agreeable to them. We would accept the different position for me at BG and Karen would become an assistant professor. We prepared to move.

Our college was surprised when Karen turned down the instructor’s position. She told the department head that she had an assistant professorship at a university which was better for her particularly since I was taking a new job in the same city. Her professor wanted to offer her something better as we met with her.

Karen said, “If you had offered that earlier, it might have made a difference. Now, it’s too late. You tried to get me cheaply. Now, you have to fill a position or two.”

I said, “Doctor Glover, Karen graduated magma cum laude but the college only thought she was worth an instructorship. The university where we’re going sees her value. Learn from the mistake you made.”

We left shortly thereafter.

Karen accepted the assistant professorship and I told Dad that wee would move to the BG home office. We began to look for another house while Karen’s parents made their plans. The day that Mister Mason was going to the personnel office to put in for retirement, the company came to him first and offered him and some others early retirement. It turned out that they wanted to close out the retirement plan he was under. The offer was quite generous. Mister Mason accepted it and would be retired from the company in another two weeks though he would be paid for another two weeks and received two months pay as part of his new package. He and his wife would have to use Cobra for a few years before Medicare would kick in. That was the only negative. They put their house up for sale and it sold in five days! They would close two days on the house sale after his last day at work!

Everything was coming together well. We were able to find another house with some property surrounding it. It was actually an old farmhouse that had undergone extensive renovations and expansions. The old highway had been moved and it was now in the middle of twenty acres! We bought it and closed quickly. We moved our bedroom and living room furniture and talked with Karen’s parents about what else to move or leave. We worked it out. The house had no garage but did have a barn set up for parking cars. After some discussion, we had a pad poured and an aluminum carport installed over it. It gave us parking close to the house. We also bought another hot tub and had it installed.

We moved in and I started to work. I would spend a couple of days awek at my old plant for a month. The new manager was promoted from within and knew everyone and just had to be introduced to the extra reporting for corporate. Karen reported to the university and was given a small office. She was working with the department head on her teaching schedule and some ideas for publication.

We are happy and still talking with Rudolph. Life is good.