Bad News. Good News.

S.C. found out that he was diabetic.  
It was a big blow to him, of course.
His mother was diabetic. He inherited her genes.
In the beginning, he was not good about adhering to the diet that the doctor had prescribed. 
It was a struggle.
He would sneak off to have sweets - a piece of pie here, an ice cream cone there, and so on. 
In later years, he did admit that he was not being a good patient, and should have listened to his doctor more carefully.
He did manage to control his diabetes. But I am sure it was hard to take in the information. It was like being handed a Sentence.
However, he was a diabetic for over thirty-five years.

Thinking back, his job situation did not help his health either. He and the others had to visit waste dumping sites, without any protective clothing.
In later years, he developed lots of health issues. A lot of the time, the doctor could not pin point what was wrong with him. 

One of his colleagues was permanently disabled because of exposure to toxic waste and such.  

I often wondered, if he was harmed in the same way, at a lesser degree?

Once he got his diabetes under control, he carried on as usual. It did not stop him from his hunting and fishing outings. 

I had to change my way of cooking. I am from Shanghai. We Shanghai people cook with sugar - a pinch in almost every dish. Now, no more sugar!

We managed.

Time went by.

We were in our house for a couple of years, Mr. Thompson told us that he had to raise rent or we needed to buy the house form him. We ended up buying the house, though it was not really a house we wanted.
As the children grew older, the house felt smaller every year. If the children had friends over, I had no place to go for some peace and quiet. 
I was wanting to move. But S.C. did not want to spend the money.
When I found a large old house in a very nice neighborhood, I wanted him to see it. He resisted.

One day at lunch, he suddenly said, that he would go and look at the house just so I would stop nagging him. 

This big old house had charm, though it needed a lot of work. It had four bedrooms, three fireplaces, and a finished basement. He took one look at the basement, he was sold. He could have a Man Cave! He told me that if I could work out a way for us to have the house without dipping into our savings, we would buy the house.

Well, I Put My Thinking Cap On!

We had enough equity in our present house for  20% down payment. 
The monthly payment would be sixty-five dollars more than our present payment . . . 
One hundred ninety something to be exact.
There was a garage apartment on the property . . . 
If we rented the apartment out for sixty-five dollars a month, we could make the monthly payment . . .
Or, I would go and find a job and make at least sixty-five dollars a month to make up the difference in monthly payment . . .
Now, if only we could sell our present house . . . 

I went to see Mr. Thompson. I presented to him my problem.
Erika!
He said that he would buy our house, then we could buy the big old house from him.
So, we moved again - this time I could not wait to move!