Thanksgiving lemonade
Did you ever hear the saying “if you get lemons, you make lemonade?” Well I have a story for you.
About seven years, ago my youngest daughter and husband decided to take on the task of running their own business. It was a 10 year old established health food store. It wasn’t just vitamins but real food: organic meats, chickens, eggs, and things for celiac, Crohns and other allergy problems. Her husband baked the breads and cookies with healthy seeds. It was an amazing store and they were doing very well.
The store had a large kitchen, bathroom and water purifier in the basement. Up the hill in the back was their tiny house, complete with a sitting room, bedroom down and two bedrooms up. Outside was a large pond which they used in summer for swimming. It was a family business and the children also helped out. They basically lived in the store and returned to the house to sleep. They lived a simple life and loved it.
The summer of 2009 things were getting a little shaky. The government had unleashed myriad spending, causing many companies to close and let their people go. This started a domino effect and more and more people were out of work. It was becoming noticeable. Last Christmas Eve (yes I said Christmas Eve, bah humbug!) the government foreclosed on my daughter and her husband. It was very devastating since they not only lost their business, but also their tiny home. My granddaughter had to leave her dorm at Kent State and go to an extension campus. Trouper that she is, she made the dean’s list and held down two jobs this last year. My grandson is now attending Lakeland College while working part time. My daughter tried everything to get a job while her husband held down the fort, but she seemed to be over qualified for everything that came up. Isn’t that almost too funny?
The bank confiscated everything in their store, including their kitchen table, refrigerator and microwave, and even tried to take the sink. My daughter went to court to keep her stove that her church donated to them. Her husband began to look for work himself. He got lucky, as someone he knew had a relatively new business and asked him to come and work. This was very important because they could remain on the property as long as they paid the utilities, and of course they needed the income. My daughter recently found a job covering for a woman on maternity leave, which may or may not be permanent. So for now things are a little brighter.
I can’t explain all the trials, tribulations, court hearings and worry we have had this last year. We helped as much as we could, their church has offered shelter along with a friend and her sisters have helped. The economy is getting worse and we never know when the other shoe will fall. It’s going to take a while for them to get a nest egg going so they can start over.
But now back to the lemons.
The government had given us lemons bankrupting our economy and putting people out of work.
The bank had given us lemons foreclosing, not just on her business but on her home, on Christmas Eve.
And now they have given us the opportunity for our whole family to come together for Thanksgiving dinner in the “empty” health food store. We just made “lemonade.”