I don't know how people get through tragedies, but they do. The construction started on the building I lived in the next day. Hans and Bijorn were as competent as I hoped they would be. Wednesday, Mark, who I had asked to watch the painters do Kim and Will's nursery and learn what he could about technique, was there although I said he didn't have to.
Ashley took over and helped Jean with the funeral arrangements. The funeral was on Friday of that week. There was a young lady crying in the rear of the funeral home and we assumed she was James's latest conquest. She did not come down to say good-bye and disappeared before he was laid to rest.
Steve was the one that took his father's death the hardest, but then he transferred all of his affection to Jean. Becky seemed to mature overnight. The first few days Shannon stayed with Jean and Becky in my apartment. Steve was so lost and sad he wanted to be near his mother and especially Jean. Becky then came to the big house with Mark, Lindsey, Marie and of course the happiest one of all, me. Well maybe not the happiest one, for Ashley reveled in helping out the Burgess clan as she called them.
The Burgess house was almost a total loss. There was very little insurance on it and the company refused to pay even that. To pay for arson by the one that had purchased the insurance and was the person to torch it was against policy.
Ashley stepped in as Jean's attorney when the insurance company refused to pay. No threats were made, but with Lilly Trevor at Ashley's side wanting to interview the president for their side of the story, things changed immediately. (Poor destitute family, bereaved wife and disabled mother of three teenagers.) It came about that the refusal was reconsidered and the bank mortgage was paid off.
Jean and her stepchildren did salvage some personal items. Those that were away from the kitchen, dining and living room areas.
In one way, I suppose my business purchased Jean and her stepfamily a new house. I employed all of them in different capacities and paid them well. The bare lot, the saved wages and the stipend that Shannon received from the state was cobbled together and although we didn't know it at the time, they would be in new quarters by Christmas.
My business took off. The remake of the building that housed my apartment was finished before Ashley and I were married. Everything I did seemed to be an advertisement for my fledgling business. It seemed as if I had at least one ceiling to do every week and I became known as the "ceiling man." I was lucky in the help I hired. I didn't feel as if I was a difficult employer, but I did demand quality from everyone.
If something did go wrong, I was there immediately to have it resolved. My little deal with Linda on the antiques gave me a boost. She handed over seventeen thousand dollars to me with a wish that I had more garages for her to clean out.