Beginning After the End By Shirley Nowinski Senior Staff Writer
Photo by Niklas Weiss on Unsplash
I
t was early evening, and my husband Paul had invited some of his work friends over for coffee and cake. Before they arrived, he went out to pick up the cake. I was not sure he would come back. In the past six months he had been acting very strange; leaving the house earlier than usual, coming home and immediately going out again, insisting on us all going out to dinner and then when we were all ready telling us to wait because he had to run a quick errand and then not coming back until the kids were in bed. One night he turned all the living room furniture upside down for no reason. The three friends came, and as we were waiting for his return one of them commented how calm I seemed. I thought they were talking about parenting a 6-year-old and a baby while starting a full time job. They weren’t! That was how I found out Paul had lost his job two months earlier, and we had one week left to vacate our three-bedroom house so the new Estate Manager could move in. As shocked as I felt, they were mortified. No one had thought to say anything to me because they couldn’t imagine he would not have told me. They left apologizing and feeling awkward (although I told them all how grateful I was that they had come). At their suggestion, I called his boss, Mrs. R who confirmed what they had told me. I explained that I did not know and asked if I could have more time to move. She said she was very sorry, but she had given Paul an extra month already, and the new people needed to move in. Mrs. R had always been exceptionally kind to all of us. When we had car issues and were going to take an auto loan, she gave us a personal loan with no interest charges. When my son was born, she moved us
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HORIZONS Spring 2022
from the two-bedroom Manager’s cottage to the large house on her property that she had been renting out. She would often call and ask if she could pick my daughter up at the school bus stop, and they both enjoyed riding in her golf cart around the streets of Belle Haven. With a week to do the impossible, I began with the necessary. I called my parents in Florida and took my mother up on her offer to come help. I didn’t know where I was going to or how, but I had to believe my kids, my dog and my cat were going to be okay. Paul came home after midnight and said he had found a room rental for himself, and his brothers would help him pack up the house. It was obvious he had invited his work friends knowing they would tell me what he had kept secret. He said that he expected I would take the kids and move to Florida, and my parents would support us. I was angry that he would think my parents would be responsible for our support; and that he would expect me to give up the great job I had just started,take my daughter away from her school and friends, and go to a place I did not even like so he could pretend I took the kids and left him. I told him I intended to look for an apartment downtown and stay in Greenwich if I could. He seemed surprised, and said he would help me find a place. My new employer offered to give me whatever time off I needed to do whatever I had to. I saw several strange apartments; one had a closet that they advertised as a third bedroom, one would accept a dog but not kids, one was okay with the cat and kids but not the dog. Finally I found an apartment downtown above a new bakery shop. It had a large kitchen, a private bedroom, and a long room that could be split into different areas. It was perfect, a short walk to school, work, food stores, parks and transportation. The problem was the owner was showing it but had
