A Lifetime

A Lifetime / Chapter 1 - Part 2

Both of their children were attending college when it happened. Sophie in her first year, Josh in his second. She became their strength and saw to it that little changed. She was going to survive this. But only if they finished the dreams that both parents had laid out for them. It was their children's path, but their parents supported it all along. This was their father's wish. To have both children go out and fulfill their potential. With the right education, no one could hold them back.

Most people will find in their lives, people want to find a fault in you. It makes them feel better about themselves.

Sad...Yes.

True...Yes.

As parents, they believed, college would be the safety net. No one would say, "If you only had a bachelor's or master's degree..." Our own self-doubt can limit too many chances in life as it is, they sure didn't want to have education, or lack thereof, to get in the way of a dream...a chance at something they really wanted.

Katherine was glad to see that their rigorous programs of study were actually keeping them busy during the loss of their father. They had less time to feel the weight of the grief. Katherine was so grateful for that.

Katherine had withdrawn to herself for a while. She forced a pleasant tone for their sakes when they called or were home. But living felt void with Chandler gone. She continued to work but barely. She had been self-employed for most of the kids' lives. It was a choice the two made when the kids were both sick at a young age. It was less stressful to have a parent always there instead of someone who perhaps wouldn't know what to do if either had a medical emergency. It helped with not missing work for all the doctor's appointments as well. It wasn't really a choice. With both children having regular specialty visits, she never wanted to let Chandler go alone. She wanted to hear how what the test results were on this visit. She needed to be there. And more than anything, she just loved the time with them.

But with Chandler gone, she felt so vulnerable. Not just being alone, but financially. She had received a large life insurance policy but knew immediately that she would pay off their children's college balances.

She knew Chandler would have said "Pay off the house" or "Pay off everything" but her first priority now was the kids. She often thought that if the roles were reversed. If she had died, Chandler would've done the same thing. What was left was her cushion to now figure out what this new life was supposed to look like. Did she grow her online business or...?

That's when she listened to her daughter. Her daughter came in unexpectedly one weekend. She found her mom looking disconsolate. She appeared even paler. Her clothes even hung differently on her mother.

"Had she lost weight?" Sophie secretly feared.

Sophie intervened with a well-rehearsed "Mom" speech and helped her mom send the book copy that had been saved for a year on her mom's outdated computer's hard drive. She spent hours just trying to find the word document. It had been tucked away with other writings and thousands of pictures.

That weekend changed Kat's life. It was only about two weeks after the query was sent that she heard from Oliver. Oliver filled the hole that was left in Katherine's life. Well, almost all of it.

Tonight, she did like most nights since she had her first book was published. She sat by the lake, ever grateful for the second chance at life. She had so many worries before, then the book published, and she was able to move to this new home. More importantly, she had confidence in herself now. She realized that fear could've ripped this all away from her. She finally knew that her writing touched and inspired others. That had been her true calling.

But the new place provided peace for her now. It was the closest thing to what her childhood dream looked like. She had only lived there for about two months. She sold her old home and moved to a place she knew wouldn't be as painful. With the children away at college, she needed something that was hers now. It didn't need to feel like it belonged to an entire family that was no longer with her. Their older home had felt so empty.