When my husband lost his job for the second time, we were pretty low. Fortunately, he was able to interview for another job right away. It was another government job in the upstate of South Carolina. He was offered the job so we had to move quickly. We had to settle for a rental house for a while. As in Georgia, we learned that the part of town that was more desirable was near medical facilities so we looked for a house near the hospital in town.
When we looked at rental houses, we only found one we could afford on the north end of town. Because we were visiting on a weekend, we were unable to get inside so we parked in the driveway and peaked in the windows. It was a brick ranch with a carport. It was too dark to get much of an idea what the inside looked like. We had to make a quick decision to take it and placed a deposit on it for the rental agency to hold it for us.
The move was set. We moved the week of our daughter’s third birthday which was the third week in December. As with all our previous moves, we packed up a U-Haul it truck and moved ourselves. We were hopeful this time that our relocation was going to stick and that our little family could finally put down some roots.
On moving day, the weather suddenly turned very cold. It was the coldest day on record for the area in a long time. Our family met us at the “new” house to help us move in. We were surprised once we got in the house and could finally see the interior. The shag carpeting throughout the living room was ugly and very green. The cabinets in the kitchen were dark as was the matching paneling in the adjoining eat-in area. This made the back part of the house feel very closed in and cave-like. I was overwhelmed wondering what we had gotten ourselves into.
The house was unheated as we discovered that the gas had not yet been turned on. I tried heating the house by turning on the stove and opening the oven door. After moving most of the essentials into the house, we decided it was too cold for my parents and daughter to stay so we told them to take her home with them while we settled in and tried to make do for the first night. Fortunately, they lived close by.
I tried not to cry and got myself busy trying to set things up in the kitchen so at least we could have a place to eat. I suddenly found the silver lining on what seemed like a very dark cloud. There was a window over the kitchen sink which looked out into a large fenced in backyard. Beyond the back yard I caught a glimpse of a nice sized lake where ducks were peacefully drifting along the surface of the water. I knew that my daughter and I would enjoy taking walks with our dog to the lake to feed the ducks and that she would have fun playing in the backyard which was equipped with a swing set.
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