Miles looked at Mom.
“Did you know your husband lent my father money?”
Mom was quiet for a moment.
Then she nodded.
“Yes. Arthur told me Harold was having trouble paying his suppliers.”
I turned toward her.
“Wait. Dad gave him money?”
She looked at me apologetically.
“Your father and I agreed to help him, Natalie.”
“How much?”
Mom hesitated.
“Eleven thousand dollars.”
I stared at her.
Eleven thousand dollars had been a considerable amount of money for our family thirty years earlier.
Then I remembered something from my childhood.
When I was nine, my parents had taken me to see a house across town.
It had a large backyard, a sunny kitchen, and a bedroom with two windows that I desperately wanted.
For months, Mom and Dad had talked about moving.
Then, almost overnight, they stopped mentioning the house.
“Was that the money you were saving for our new home?” I asked.
Mom lowered her eyes.
“Some of it, yes.”
“Why didn’t you ever tell me?”
“You were just a little girl. We didn’t want you worrying about adult problems.”
Miles listened quietly.
Mom explained that Harold had been a close friend of Dad’s for years.
When the supermarket began struggling, several suppliers threatened to stop deliveries unless overdue bills were paid.
Arthur knew Harold had employees depending on him, and he didn’t want to see the business close.
“We thought we’d be able to wait another year before buying a house,” Mom said. “Your father told me Harold needed the money more urgently.”
I looked at her.
“And you agreed?”
She gave me a small smile.
“Of course we discussed it first. I wasn’t thrilled about postponing our plans, but we’d known that family for years.”
Miles turned another page in the binder.
“My father repaid the loan four years later, with interest. I have the records here.”
Mom nodded.
“Yes, he did. We received every penny.”
“But according to his notes,” Miles continued, “that loan arrived just days before our main supplier was going to stop deliveries.”
He showed us a handwritten entry.
Without the money, the store would have closed before the refrigeration repairs were finished.
I sat back in my chair.
