Chapter 7

Judy and I had about the same size wedding as Selma and Ho the first day of June. We had been living together now for six months so the ceremony was anti-climactic. I think Brenda was one of the happier persons. She was happy for me, because my being married now removed most of the guilt she felt about contributing to our breakup last summer and fall.

Selma, Brenda and I were still the owners of record for the lodge business. We wanted four more rooms to rent out. At first, it seemed the best direction was to build on the south side of the present building. I did look for help in the design.

The person, who I asked, talked me out of what I had in mind. "Go west with your addition. If you want four rooms on the ground, just extend it out in the shape of the building as it is now. That would keep the same roof design and it would double the size of the main house. You will not get away from the old New England farmhouse look. That is important to the people who are looking for a period house.

I had him draw up an estimate of what the cost was going to be. Again, the plumbing for three bathrooms would be a major cost. The new addition would increase the total of bathrooms to seven and demanded we expand our need for a bigger disposal of the sewage to handle them all.

I was balancing my checkbook the first statement after my wedding. I knew it should have about $87,000 listed in it. I felt I could use $50,000 of this and look to an investor for the remainder.

I slit the envelope and stared at the amount. Next, I looked at the deposits. Deposit, June 2, 2008—$500,000. Just then, I felt arms go around me and Judy whispered in my ear, "You heard Charlie tell me the money from the insurance company to care for him was mine. You also said I could help with the records so I have been looking at them. Jonathan, there is more if we need it." I pulled my wife into my lap and kissed her.

I knew my mother was preparing vegetables in the kitchen. I took Judy by one hand and the statement in the other. "Mom, we have an investor for the new addition. When Brenda gets here this afternoon, I want to make Judy another one of the part owners of our business. In the meantime, we will be upstairs discussing it. I want to give her my thanks for making life easier for all of us." Mom looked at the statement and waved her hand at us to go.

Stella and Harry were due to leave for Japan and arrive there on July the 1st. In the meantime, Peggy and Pete were adopted by Brenda, and listed as their mother. Attorneys for both their natural parents had said this was not necessary, but both Stella and Harry insisted on it. Stella felt as long as she was going to be out of the country for such a long time Brenda should have full control of the children if anything should happen to Pat.

Pete and Peggy spent the remainder of June with Harry and Stella after they finished school for the year. Pat and Brenda traveled to see Stella off to Japan and collect the kids so they could come home together. I overheard Peggy telling Judy that she loved her mother again, now that she was being treated as an adult, but she now loved Brenda just as much and maybe a little more.

Our three rooms were now being booked solid. Most of our patrons were people who had come and stayed for a few days and loved it. Kim and Cami, the retired twin schoolteachers, had asked to lease the downstairs bedroom for the next year. They were treated as an addition to the family and all took an interest in what was going on. They got very excited when informed we would be enlarging the main house and adding six more rooms.

Judy became the driving force in pushing things along. I still worked everyday, hating to give up my employment. I liked working out, but I knew, as things got busier around the lodge, I should be here full time. "Jonathan, I was thinking that while everything is under construction this year we should do more."

"Tell me."

"We should turn the living room into a dining room. We are going to have a lot more guests by Christmas. We need more room in the kitchen. And, I have figured out where we can put even more guests. You can quit work by the start of the New Year, and I can see you all day, every day. Would you like that?"

"I would. Explain how you think you can make my life more wonderful than it is."

"We should make the horse barn into a bunk house for the family. We need Selma and Ho's room to enlarge the kitchen anyway. You and I can sleep where Ho did last summer. There is plenty of room for a bath for Peggy and Pete, constructed behind our room. We can make two big rooms and a bath on the first level. Selma can pick the one she wants. It is mostly open underneath the building. With a little excavating we can put in a furnace and one more big room for when we have guests of our own like Sandy, Ben and their girls to stay in."

"This would mean two more bathrooms going into the new system. It isn't designed for that."

"Can't we have a separate one of our own?"

"I guess. We should have a small kitchen to build a snack if we don't want to go to the big house, shouldn't we?"

"I was going to ask about that, but didn't want to push it. Speaking about pushing. Are you going to tell me to push when we have our baby?"

"I certainly am. When would this be happening?"

"The third week of November. Haven't you noticed I was putting on a little weight?"

"I did and I knew you must be pregnant. One of the women who work for me was in the doctor's office the same time you were last month. I was hoping."

"You are all right with this?"

"More than all right. I'm ecstatic! I wonder what Brenda will say?" That slipped out. Brenda and I had talked about having another child after Ben had grown up, but had put it off. I looked at Judy to see how she received my wondering about my ex-wife and her feelings.

She had a smirk on her face. "Brenda is wondering about you and your feelings too. She is due about the same time as I am. She is telling Pat today that we both are pregnant."

"Isn't Brenda too old for another baby?" A pang of worry for my ex-wife pierced me.

"No. She will have to be more careful during her pregnancy than I am because of her age, that is all. I am surprised at her decision, though. I would think she would not want to go through raising a child at her age. She wants the baby for Pat, because she loves him so much."

"What about me? I'm the sane age as she is."

"I know, but you have me. Also your mother, Pete and Peggy are going to be around here the rest of their lives."

"You can't know that."

"Well, Pete is going to be anyway. You may not have noticed, but he is with Ho just about all of his time. He went into the farm extension service for pamphlets on raising vegetables, fruit and small animals for food. Ho is already raising a few rabbits to give us a change in meat. The top of the cow barn is ideal for that. Eventually he wants to talk to you about putting a pick-your-own operation on the fifteen acres where the pasture is now. It isn't too steep to get a small garden tractor around to till blueberries, raspberries and blackberries."

"I suppose Peggy is planning something so she can live here as well?"

"You got it. She has looked at the Boston Culinary Institute. I am taking her down for an interview next week. Stella sent a check to cover expenses."

"It is early for that isn't it?"

"Peggy graduates in June. Stella is pushing her to go on to school and make something of herself. Peggy said she wanted to stay right here and live with all of us. She is willing to leave only long enough to learn something that will make her useful, so this is what she has come up with."

"That's a great plan. She will have a job when she graduates. I was worried that we might have as many as thirty people to feed three times a day."

"Jonathan, it may be more. If the family moves into the horse barn, that will open up the three rooms in the attic we can let out."

"That is true. Maybe I had better plan on working beyond the first of the New Year.

"No way. I am going to be here with a two-month-old baby by then. I know you can't boss this place as well as me, but I will need you to keep things organized."

"Okay, but I will expect some kind of payment."

"You got it. I think I had better start prepayment today." I was taken by the hand. I followed this woman up to our room in the attic.

I had all of the contractors for the construction lined up to begin work as soon as we had the permits. One of our boarders, the one who was a writer, decided that he could not concentrate so he left. However, Kim and Cami, the schoolteachers, reveled in the action that was taking place. They were in their sixties and had never married. They flirted with the workers and had a grand time making friends with them all.

I had one company in to do the excavating. This company also was the one that had the engineer to install the two separate sewer systems. It was not long before the health officer came and approved their work so the leach field could be covered and the area reseeded. I had hired one builder to do the addition on the house and another to remodel the horse barn.

I had promised Judy, that by the time our baby was delivered, the construction would be completed. She could then give her attention to loving our child with minimal noise from the construction. We scheduled not to fill the new rooms with boarders until after the first of the year. For at least six weeks, we would not be too busy.

It was planned for Brenda to spend more time here at the lodge, as she would not be going back to work when the baby came. She of course would be going with Pat downtown at night, but be here during the day. This was Brenda's idea and we agreed that as the rooms filled up, we were going to be extremely busy and there were things she could do.

The renovations on the horse barn were complete by the end of October and the family was moved in by November 1. There were the two extremely pregnant women waddling around doing what they could. Peggy kept telling them to relax and try not to do so much. Judy was as active as ever. Brenda was good most days, but on some, she said she was tired and almost dizzy. Everyone was worried about her.

I was. I had been married to her for so many years. Our parting did not dispel the love I had for her. The lust we had when we were first married and for several more years were gone, of course, but the love was still there. Sometimes when we caught a minute alone, Brenda always brought up that she still did love me and apologized again for not being true.

I countered with the question if she was happy with Pat. "Yes I am. I wanted to give him this child so he would never wonder about you and me and if I regretted marrying him. I don't, not ever."

"That is as it should be. I was mightily attracted to Judy at the time. You knew that. All in all our lives has turned out for the best." After this conversation, it seemed only right that we should hug. This moved to a kiss. Brenda started giggling.

"You're no Pat, but you're still pretty good."

I laughed with her. "I know what you mean. You are no Judy. Judy would have had her tongue down my throat and would have been grabbing for something before we finished kissing. You both are alike in one way. When we just hugged, I could feel the baby kicking against me. The same thing happens when I hug Judy."

"That's nice. It won't be long before you can hug both babies on their own."

My phone was ringing. I turned the light on and glanced at the clock. It was after two. "Yes?"

"Jonathan, I'm in the hospital. Brenda has complications. Would you drive Peggy and Selma in to the hospital for me? There is no hurry and don't bother Judy."

"Okay Pat, we will be right there. Is it the baby?"

"Everything is fine. I'll see you in a little bit."

I hurriedly put my clothes on and woke my mother and Peggy. By this time, the whole household was waking up. I had no answers for their questions and we were soon on the road to the hospital. Pat met us outside the Emergency Room. We gathered around him.

Tears were running down his cheeks. He was trying to get through this without breaking up totally. "I'm sorry to tell you, but Brenda passed away a few minutes ago. She woke me saying she had a wicked headache. I immediately called Rescue. I only had a few words with her before the pain got so bad she couldn't speak. Some words of her love for me, some for Pete, Peggy, and a couple for you, Jonathan. The last were about the baby.

"She asked that if she did not make it that we name the baby Brenda so we would not forget her. I promised and I know she heard me before she had a convulsion and slid into unconsciousness. The Rescue personnel think she may have had a brain aneurysm.

"They say the pregnancy wouldn't have had anything to do with this problem. It was lucky she could carry little Brenda to full term, which would have been in three more days. We can see the baby in another little while."

Tears were now falling from all of us. Pat was having trouble maintaining his balance so we helped him inside. A nurse came out and had questions about what to do with Brenda's remains. When that was finished, she said for us to go up to the nursery. There were only two babies in the nursery. The nurse there held up the largest infant for us to view. Little Brenda was nearly seven pounds.

The nurse then came out and suggested the baby stay in the hospital a few days. This would be until we could arrange for someone to take care of the baby. She assured us that the baby was perfectly healthy and should present few problems even though her mother was not there to be with her.

It was a sad, tearful journey home that morning. I think Ho was devastated as much or more than we were. He had lost so many loved ones. Judy's words were, "Pat bring the baby home and we will care for it. I have big breasts and if they continue to fill as they have so far, I will have enough milk to nurse little Brenda as well as my own baby. That will be in a week or ten days, I promise."

Phone calls went out to Ben and Sandy. Ben could not believe his mother had died. His concern was for me, even though we were not married any longer. He knew how much I still cared for her. "I can handle it. We were still close and I am going to miss her terribly, but think of the others who need sympathy more than I do. Pete and Peggy loved her more than they do their own mother, and they feel so bad for their father. I do too.

"Pat would feel the same for me if something should happen to Judy. Ho came to me with tears in his eyes, asking if he was going to continue to lose members of his family. Brenda and he were close as stepfather and stepdaughter. Ho has lost two wives and his children and now he has lost Brenda. Mom hasn't said much, but she always loved Brenda. How are Sandy and the kids taking it?"

"Sandy is crushed. The girls are still too young to be that aware. They are more excited about seeing their aunt and uncle, Pete and Peggy. We will come in tomorrow. Do you have room for us?"

"Yes, you and Sandy can have my old room in the attic. I have moved into the horse barn. Come as soon as you can."

Judy called Charlie. At first, he could not see why she was so broken up. "After all, you married her ex-husband. I should think there would be some tension and even hate somewhere showing itself."

"I'll try to explain it when you get here. There is no room for hate here within this family I married. You aren't without fault either."

"Would you explain that, Sis?"

"Not now and maybe never. I should not have said anything. How is Tina?"

"Great. I have asked her to marry me. I am over Carol as much as I will ever be. The wedding will take place on the date I regained my senses. You will come won't you?"

"We'll see. I will have my baby by then. Two in fact. I have promised to nurse little Brenda when she comes home from the hospital. I should be lactating by then."

You're going to feed someone else's baby?"

"If possible I am. I'm going to care for it anyway."

"What the hell kind of people are you living with?"

"Good people, Charlie. Really good people."

Peggy had called her mother in Japan. Stella arrived just as the funeral commenced. We did not know it until we were filing by Brenda's casket at the end of the service that she had arrived. Brenda was buried in the plot she and I had purchased together a few years ago. We hadn't had a thought at that time we might divorce. The monument had Brenda and my names on it with our birthdates.

Pat was just relieved there was a place for her to be laid to rest. We would resolve this at some other time. "I don't mind that she lies with you. I see empty lots on the other side. I will inquire and maybe I can purchase one beside her and put up a small stone for myself." Just details!

Sarah and Joni had been informed of Brenda's passing, and came with sorry in their hearts and tears in their eyes. Bob and Rich did not come, but sent words of condolence. It was a good thing, for I felt they should share some of the pain of a year ago. I blamed them all and was secretly pleased that they were divorced and making a life separately. I caught a comment that neither were very happy. If Brenda had joined in their lifestyle more than she had, I never would have been able to become friends with her again.