I promised I wouldn’t leave you hanging so here is Part 2 Bailey had become almost like a sister to me and had taken to wearing my old glasses quite well. I never saw her without them now, and the first thing she did every morning was to put them on. I had asked her a couple of times how her vision was with glasses, and she had simply answered that it was great. One evening I got out the third pair mom had bought me and asked Bailey if she wanted to try them on. She did, and when I asked her if they were better than the pair she was wearing, she told me that she didn’t know. She said maybe they were a little bit better, and while I knew they were stronger I didn’t push her to wear them. I just told her if she wanted to wear them, she was welcome to use them. It is funny, but since Bailey had started wearing my old glasses, whenever she took them off, she complained about how bad her eyes were now. My own eyes were now so bad that I never bothered to take my glasses off, as I really could not see much without them, but I never complained. A couple of weeks later Bailey started wearing my third pair of glasses, and I decided I would start to wear the drop temple glasses. Now they were very easy to wear and while it might have been my imagination, I thought I could see better when I was wearing them. The only problem with them was that they were a little loose on my face and the earpieces needed to be bent a little to fit me. I knew I needed to heat the plastic up to bend them, so I boiled some hot water and put each earpiece in the hot water that I had poured into a coffee cup. I bent them a little bit, but I was afraid to heat the plastic bridge, which I needed to do to make the glasses fit tighter. Bending the earpieces made them fit a little better but they still slipped down a lot, and it was annoying. I put up with it for a couple of months before I got out the next pair. Surprisingly enough I could wear them now, even though they had still seemed to be too strong when I had tried them back when I still was wearing the silver glasses. This pair must have been made from a different type of plastic because I was easily able to heat them up and bend them to fit my face perfectly. I was pretty sure they had dated back to the mid to late 1970’s as the shape of these glasses seemed to have been the style back then. Since the lenses were sort of a round shape, they were also similar to the shape of the frames that were in style now. The drop temple frames had caused a number of people to comment on them and while I enjoyed the attention, I felt they were almost drawing too much attention to me. I was happy to be wearing the more modern looking glasses. I was wearing those glasses when I turned 17 that spring. I only had another year to be able to live at Mildred’s place, although Children’s aid would still pay my rent until I graduated from grade 12. I would never be able to save enough money to get a place of my own, even if I was working full time. I had an idea, even though it wasn’t ideal to live at Mildred’s, and I would have rather had a room of my own. But I was willing to bet that if I could pay Mildred what she had been earning from Children’s aid I could likely keep on living there. And if I worked full time, it would be easier for me to save my money to be able to get an apartment. I talked to Mildred, and I offered to pay her the same amount that she was getting from Children’s aid if I could continue living there and sharing the room with Bailey. Mildred agreed that this would work, and she told me she was actually thinking of not taking any more children in. As long as I was willing to help her out with the house cleaning, she would like to have me as a roomer. When I told Bailey that I was staying as her roommate she was quite happy. She would be 14 in another 3 months, and I really had been like an older sister towards her. Also, when she had started her periods, I had pretty much gone through the whole birds and the bee’s story with her. Not that I had to tell her much, because her friends at school had clued her in, but I did clear up a couple of misconceptions and I helped her with her first period. I knew that the 3rd pair, the last of the glasses mom had bought for me, had a prescription of around -4.50D, my 4th pair was -6.00D and the last pair I had gotten from Children’s aid was -7.50D. I suspected that whatever the prescription that Bailey was wearing in my third pair of glasses was possibly a little too weak for her. I suspected that since she was squinting a little my old -6.00D glasses might be just right for her. I had her try them on, and while she told me that everything was nice and clear she thought she would wait for a little while longer before she wore them. I didn’t argue with her, as I wanted it to be her choice. I really wanted to try to wear the 4th pair of glasses I had gotten from the thrift store. I had worn them around the house a few times, and I had worn them when I went out for walks, but I wasn’t sure I could wear them all the time. They were stronger than the third pair that I was wearing, but I was sure I could manage wearing them everywhere but to work. I didn’t have to rush things, but I had decided that I wanted to be wearing the last pair by the time I graduated from grade 12. I thought they looked really nice, even though the lens thickness was around 15mm at the thickest point. What I really liked about the final pair was that the front of the lenses seemed to be dished in a little bit, even though the lens opening size was fairly small. I wasn’t able to skip the 4th pair, because the last pair seemed a little too strong for me to adapt to without first wearing pair number 4 at least for a month or so. While I was trying to make up my mind to go for it and wear the 4th pair Bailey surprised me when she asked me if she could use the pair of glasses that I had let her try on a few weeks earlier. Of course, I told her she could wear them, and even though I had been about her age when I had gotten that pair, I was not sure if I could talk her into wearing the -7.50D pair by the time she was 15. Thinking of that was enough of a push for me to finally start wearing pair 4 of my thrift store glasses, and even though I really didn’t care for them I knew I had to wear them for about 3 months before I could easily adapt to the 5th pair. That would put me right on track to be wearing the 5th pair when I turned 18. I did wish that I knew the prescription of both those pairs of glasses, but that was going to have to wait until I could afford to go to an optical store wearing them and offer to pay to get them to give me the prescription. Now that I was going to be a paid roomer Mildred was a much easier person to chat with. Even though my rent would be paid for me until the end of the school year I was helping her a little more with the housekeeping and as I dusted the living room, she would sometimes sit in her recliner and talk with me about her husband and her earlier life. They had been unable to have children of their own, and she and George had talked about taking in orphans many years ago. She had decided that when Bailey and I had both moved out she would sell her house and move into assisted living. Bailey still had 3 more years to go, and Mildred was not sure if she would be able to continue looking after Bailey, but since I was staying on and was willing to help with the housekeeping Mildred was sure that everything would be fine for another few years. It was two weeks before my 18th birthday when a very official looking letter arrived for me. The letter was from the legal department of a firm of lawyers, and when I opened it, I was shocked beyond belief. My mom had an insurance policy on her life for a hundred grand. It paid double in the event of accidental death and had earned another 40 grand in interest over the past few years since mom died. Mom had set it up so that the money came to me on my 18th birthday if she was dead, although I am sure she would have done something else if she had known I would have been in the care of Children’s aid from the age of 14 on. Now I could go to university if I wanted. But then reality set in. I didn’t have the grades to attend university. I was past the date for most of the college admissions. And in all honesty, I wasn’t sure I wanted to spend another 4 years in school. I needed to take some time to think this through. Bailey’s eyes must really have been changing a lot, because while I was thinking about my future and before I called to set up an appointment with the lawyers at the insurance company, she asked me if she could try my next pair of glasses. I got out the last pair of glasses that Children’s aid had gotten for me and gave them to her. She thought that they looked pretty thick, but I told her that they really were not much stronger than the previous pair. What surprised me was that she could really see well wearing them. And now that she was almost 15, she also looked like a very pretty young lady. I called the insurance company and I arranged to meet with them in their offices downtown on my 18th birthday. That was on Tuesday of the following week, and the day that I made the appointment was also the day that I put the 5th and final pair of the thrift store glasses on. That would give me a full week to adapt to the stronger lenses and even though I wasn’t sure I had managed to advance my prescription to match the full strength of the previous pair I was determined that I would now wear the strongest glasses I had. By the time Tuesday rolled around my head was still spinning. I had adapted remarkably well to the stronger glasses, and I didn’t mind looking at myself in the mirror wearing them. I sort of liked what I saw looking back at me. I had never considered myself attractive, but with my hair tied back in a ponytail, and a little bit of makeup on I no longer looked like an 18 year old virgin who wore thick glasses and had never been out on a date. I had selected the outfit that I considered my very best, and although the weather on the first of June could often be spotty, the sun was shining, and I wasn’t going to spoil my appearance by wearing my shabby raincoat. I walked with confidence to the bus stop so I could catch the subway downtown. My confidence had evaporated by the time I rode the elevator to the 25th floor. Yes, I knew I was about to walk out of this building with a lot of money, but I was scared. Could I, would I, make the correct decisions today? Did I even have to make a decision today? I still couldn’t get my head around the fact that at age 18 I was no longer poor. I announced my arrival to the receptionist. “Come right this way Ms. Donaldson. We were expecting you.” The receptionist said and she led me down a corridor with offices on both sides. She ushered me into a room with a big table in the center and lots of comfy looking office chairs. She had me sit and offered me coffee, tea or any other drink I wanted, but I was shaking so much inside I just told her thanks, but I didn’t want anything. A minute or so after she left a young lawyer looking guy walked in, introduced himself as Ben Stevenson, and set a handful of folders down on the table. A couple of older gentlemen and a lady walked in before I could get my nerve up to say anything more than the initial hello pleased to meet you greeting to Ben. Everyone else introduced themselves and they all went on to explain how they had managed the funds that were now mine. I was even more surprised to find out that as of today my mom’s insurance was now going to give me $254,735.42. Apparently the $240,000 they had told me about in the letter was the cash value as of the previous year end. John, the older gentleman in charge of the meeting told me how they had invested and grown the original policy, but while I am not a stupid person, I am afraid that some of his explanations went over my head. The end result however was that they wanted me to leave most of the money in their care and they would continue to grow my money. Apparently since it was an inheritance the funds would be coming to me tax free as of that day, although any increases in value from this day forward would be taxable income. When the meeting ended, I was told that Ben would be staying with me to answer any further questions I might have, and he would suggest some ways I could earn more income in what they called a risk based fund. During the meeting I had caught Ben looking at me in an unusual way. He wasn’t really obvious about it, but I did have a feeling that his glances were a little more than just a casual look or two. We were left alone in the board room, and Ben very professionally explained my options. I asked him a few questions, which he answered, and by the time we finished we had arranged for me to be paid $1,000 a month. Ben felt that with that amount they should be able to maintain the initial funds and hopefully there would still be a slight amount of growth. When we finished Ben suggested that he would like to invite me to have lunch with him. I hadn’t been to a sit down restaurant since before my mom died and the idea was really inviting to me, especially since he was treating me, and I figured it would be on an expense account.
https://vision-and-spex.com/part-2-of-a-surprise-family-t2310.html