Chapter 1

What a fucking mess. Why would she do this to me? Jesus H Christ! Forty fucking years down the fucking drain. What the fuck do I do now? God Damn her, that fucking bitch. I just can't fucking believe it. Now just what the fuck am I supposed to do? I'm 64 years old, Christ I don't want to be alone or start over. Fuck, Fuck, Fuck!!

I guess I should back up after having this rant, and fill in the blanks.

My name is Henry Albert Rittir (HAR). My whole life everybody always called me Har, and that was what I answer to. I'm 64 years old, in a normal 64-year-old body. Thick around the middle, have bald spot on top of my head, my health had been generally good. My looks are what I would call average. I'm five feet-nine inches tall, and weight 210 pounds. My hair what was left, was dark with lots of gray in it, and I have brown eyes. I guess I look like a typical man in his sixties, who never really did much to take care of himself.

I work for Dow Chemical in their purchasing department. I have worked there for almost forty years. I can retire anytime that I choose. I was born and raised in Midland, and went through the Midland school system. After graduation I took a couple of years off from school and worked in the housing construction, to make some money.

At age twenty I enrolled at Delta College. Delta is a junior college offering two-year associate degrees. I just took the basic classes, with some marketing classes. At the end of two years I had a degree in basic business. I met my future wife Marybeth at Delta. More on her later.

At the end of my second year, Delta had a jobs fair. I sat down with the representatives from Dow Chemical, and we had a long chat. When we finished up with our conversation, I filled out a job application. After some more interviews and a whole bunch more paper work over the next four months, I was offered a job with Dow Chemical in the purchasing department. I worked part-time while I finished college. I went to Northwood for my final two years, getting a degree in general business, with a minor in marketing. I started to work full time for Dow at the age of twenty-five.

I met Marybeth halfway through my first year at Delta. She was two years younger than me. We had a couple of classes together. She was studying to be a nurse. We would study and have lunch together for the next couple of years, and we dated on and off over that time.

When she graduated, we became exclusive. Neither of us were virgins, but I guess that wasn't a prerequisite anymore for couples going steady, and thinking about getting married. We got married a few months after I started to work full time for Dow Chemical. I was twenty-five, and Marybeth was twenty-three, when we got married.

Marybeth wasn't what you would call a trophy wife. But to me she was the most beautiful women in the world. She had auburn hair and green eyes. She was five feet-four inches tall, and maybe 115 pounds in weight. Her figure was nice best guess 33-25-34.

She wanted children right away, and every couple of years we had a child. We ended up with two boys and a girl before we stopped. The oldest was Richard George named after our two fathers, the second was Henry Andrew, and the third was the apple of my eye, Grace Joanne named after our two mothers. Marybeth never did work, she wanted to be a stay at home mom, to watch the kids.

When the kids reached their teens, and were able to begin taking care of themselves, Marybeth began discussing with me about going back to work. Finally, at the age of thirty-eight, she got a part time job working for a local insurance firm. In a couple of years, she became full time, and she worked her way up to the position of office manager. Their retirement plan was a 401k, which she and her company both put in equal amounts. She had to wait until she was sixty-five to draw from the 401k without taking a penalty for early withdrawal.

As time progressed, the kids were all grown-up and flew the coop. Richard lived in Toledo, OH, with his wife and two children. Henry lived in Grand Rapids, with his wife and two children. Gracie lived in Traverse City, with her husband and one child, she is expecting another child in a few months. All of our children live within driving distance from us.

For the last couple of years, we have been formulating our retirement plans. I would retire in two years, at the age of sixty-six, drawing both pension and max social security. In a year after I retired, Marybeth would be sixty-five, and she would do the same thing. For the past few winter months we have been going to various places in the south to decide where we would like to winter during our retirement age. This year we plan on touring Florida. Many years ago, I purchased a cottage on Higgins lake. I had the cottage completely remodeled. When we retire, we plan on selling the house and living at the cottage for seven months, and then go south for five months, or something close to that schedule.

A few years ago Marybeth had some cosmetic surgery done on her face. The surgeon tightened her face up removing most of the wrinkles and the crow's feet around her eyes. She had some enhancement work done to her breast, making them rounder, and a little bigger. She probably picked up a cup size. All this work on her made her look ten years younger. She still had those great legs and nice ass, with a trim body. She worked out at a gym three to four times a week.

There now that the basic information is out of the way, now to the meat of the problem.

Every month Dow had a purchasing meeting with all the purchasing departments. This month the meeting was held in Detroit, and the next month it was in Houston. When the meeting was in Detroit, then myself and one of my colleague's would go. My department consist of myself, I am the department supervisor, and four other associates. There are three purchasing departments within the Dow Michigan Operations. When the meeting was in Houston, then only one member from our department would go to the meeting. We had a rotation set-up on who's turn it was to go to the Houston meeting. The Detroit meeting was always on a Friday. The Houston meeting was always a bigger meeting lasting from Tuesday through Thursday. We generally flew out on a Monday afternoon, and came home on a Friday morning.

It was Friday and we have morning meeting. We meet with all of the purchasing agents who work at Dow Michigan Operations, at the Midland Plants. The meeting was held at the corporate building. We review the day's agenda and what we plan on presenting. We try to be done and out the door by 10:00 am, for the drive to Detroit. The meeting with the out-state purchasing agents would start at 1:00 pm. The meeting usually lasts most of the afternoon.