AKRON, JUNE 1973

I left you in my last post with our arrival in Akron at the home of my aunt and uncle.....and at the beginning of our new lives.

I was scared...but, still confident.

When we walked into my aunt and uncle's home, I handed my aunt the last $64.00 I had...a very small contribution for what I knew was a huge sacrifice for them and for my 5 cousins. (In today's money, that was probably the equivalent of $200.) My uncle was a doctor and the home was large and lovely, in the country, and was a paradise for us especially, because we had come from severe financial struggles. However, I did NOT have the attitude that because they were well-off that they owed us anything! I want to make that very clear! I simply felt blessed that they were there when we needed them, and willing to allow us the grace of sharing their home with us. If not for them, I don't know what we would have done.....but, the Secret was at work, and there they were.

The second thing I did upon arriving was to ask for the newspaper so I could look through the help-wanted ads for a job. This wasn't a vacation; I didn't use any excuses like I was tired, or wanted to take a break before looking for work. No. It was serious business and I knew I had to get moving so that we could get out on our own as soon as possible.
I sat down with the paper and a pen and started circling ads. Then I started making calls and arranging interviews.
The next day, I had an interview with an insurance company for the position of executive secretary. I did not have any experience in this field....but, that didn't deter me; I knew I could do it. When I walked into the office for the interview, I was handed the application to fill out and I sat down to fill it out.....along with about 10 other young ladies, who probably had loads more experience than I did.
I passed the first interview, and was given a second where I had to type a letter as it was being dictated to me by the boss. Talk about intimidating! But, somehow I passed all the tests and got the job, and started immediately.

Now, of course, I needed a car....and, remember I told you in my last post what we arrived with, and a car wasn't one of those things!
Again, the Secret was working: my aunt and uncle had an extra one that they let me use.....so, off to work I went.

During our stay in my aunt and uncle's home, my 14 year old son, who was extremely angry with me for taking him away from his friends and All-Star baseball team in the state we'd left, was busy rebelling and making life difficult for everyone. He wasn't getting along with my cousins and was being disruptive. You don't go stay in someone else's home and then become a source of disruption to them....so, we had to find a solution.
My best friend, whom I mentioned in my first post in this series, stepped up and offered to take him in....her cheerful and kind attitude was, "I already have 5 kids, what's one more?" (Well, I KNOW what one more was! She didn't live in a mansion and she certainly wasn't wealthy; she worked as hard as I did just to try to make it, so I know what a sacrifice it was. Not to mention that my son wasn't the little ray of sunshine that would have made his addition to their family more pleasant!)

Three months went by and somehow everyone survived....but it was time for us to get out on our own.....and getting our own place and a car of my own became my intense immediate goal. (It had always been my goal, but, had I known then what I know now about the Secret, I would have been able to know the steps necessary to achieve that goal much sooner!)

Well, this is a good place to stop for today, but I'll be back soon. I hope all of you had a wonderfully fun and exciting Fourth of July......mine was great, and The Secret was at work!

It's now 12:26 pm my time on July 5, 2008. There are 341 hits on my blog. (remember, part of this experiment is to explode the hits on my blog!)