RSteve
Well-known member
- Joined
- Feb 9, 2008
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I had to pick up a prescription at a drugstore about a mile from my house. In the store, I ran into a fellow I hadn't seen in years. He's pushing 80 years old and looks every year of it. We chatted for a bit and he asked me if I could drive him home. He's been living in the same low income apartment for well over thirty years. He'd been a successful CPA, married in his mid to late 40s to a much younger woman. Within a couple of years of his marriage, they had two sons and his wife filed for divorce. She wanted minimal custody of the sons, apparently wanting a return to the single life. My friend took a job with the USPS as an overnight mail sorter, so he could be home during the day to raise his boys. He hired a series of women to spend nights at his apartment to keep an eye on his sons while they slept and he worked. Although he had primary physical custody of the boys, by MN law, he and the ex had joint custody and he had to pay child support, even though the boys lived with him and he paid all their expenses.
Between child support, expenses for the boys, the overnight attendants, and his relatively low USPS income, he couldn't afford a house or car. Once the boys were school age, his friends, me included, encouraged him to return to his accounting profession, perhaps within USPS. For a reason none of us could understand, he was determined to continue his overnight mail sorting job.
Then one day, when his sons were about eight and six, I ran into him at a local supermarket with the boys and a toddler girl in a stroller. "Did you get married again?" I asked him. He just chuckled and said that his ex had remarried, had this little girl, and divorced. The little girl's father was a dead-beat and had left town. He took the little girl on weekends to give his ex a break and, as he said, "It's really the only time my sons get to spend with their sister."
On the way to his apartment, I learned that he retired at age 70, both of his sons are successful professionals, neither is married, and both live outside of MN. The little girl is now a woman in her 30s and although they aren't biologically related, have a close father/daughter relationship.
I asked him if he'd had done things differently, had he any indication how his life would unfold. He said, "Not really. I have a nice pension and my needs are modest. Everything worked out for the best."
Not a scintilla of bitterness or regret. I could not be as selfless.
Between child support, expenses for the boys, the overnight attendants, and his relatively low USPS income, he couldn't afford a house or car. Once the boys were school age, his friends, me included, encouraged him to return to his accounting profession, perhaps within USPS. For a reason none of us could understand, he was determined to continue his overnight mail sorting job.
Then one day, when his sons were about eight and six, I ran into him at a local supermarket with the boys and a toddler girl in a stroller. "Did you get married again?" I asked him. He just chuckled and said that his ex had remarried, had this little girl, and divorced. The little girl's father was a dead-beat and had left town. He took the little girl on weekends to give his ex a break and, as he said, "It's really the only time my sons get to spend with their sister."
On the way to his apartment, I learned that he retired at age 70, both of his sons are successful professionals, neither is married, and both live outside of MN. The little girl is now a woman in her 30s and although they aren't biologically related, have a close father/daughter relationship.
I asked him if he'd had done things differently, had he any indication how his life would unfold. He said, "Not really. I have a nice pension and my needs are modest. Everything worked out for the best."
Not a scintilla of bitterness or regret. I could not be as selfless.
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