“There are some who bring a light so great to the world that even after they have gone the light remains.” — Unknown
Monday morning I called Gord at his work and his secretary connected me right away. He said what is the good word this morning. I said we are coming to Fredericton, Gord. He said you made my day. I said I got to go and disconnected the phone.
The next day when I got to the office, Sandy said somebody by the name of Garry called for you earlier this morning and he left his number for you to call him back. She said he sounded like a smooth talker. I said he used to work for me. He’s indeed a charmer. I wonder how the hell he got my number. Probably he got it from John. I said, thanks Sandy.
When I looked at the telephone number, the area code looked familiar but I didn’t want to rush to call him back. I spent a few minutes in the computer room talking to a couple of people and then grabbed a cup of coffee before I went to my office. I closed my office door before I picked up the phone to call Garry. My phone was answered right away. He said this is Garry. I said I am returning your call Garry. He said thanks, Mir. He said he was calling from Fredericton and wanted to discuss the details of the job and address any questions I might have. I said I am all ears.
He spent a few minutes talking about the job description and then he went into explaining the salary and benefits. He said as I understand it you have already accepted the job. He said do you have any idea about the starting date. I said we need to sell our house and wait for the kids to finish school. We are hoping to be in Fredericton in the first week of July. He said what you need to know is that we will take care of your moving expenses 100 percent which will include the expenses associated with the moving company as well as your expenses on the road to Fredericton like meals, gas, hotels, etc. Furthermore, you can stay in a hotel here in Fredericton for 2 to 4 weeks before you move into your house here.
Likewise, you need to come to the office in Fredericton sometime to meet with the folks you are going to work with. Typically, what happens is when you come here with family for what we call “House Hunting”; you spend a couple of hours meeting with those folks. By the way, he said, all expenses for your “House Hunting” visit will be covered 100 percent.
Finally, he said we will reimburse you the amount of money you pay as commission to real estate folks for selling your house.
However, you need to know that you will have to sign a paper, stating that you will serve the government a minimum two years otherwise you will have to pay back all the money on your move that you had received. We chatted for a couple of minutes longer before he gave me his contact information and he said please feel free to call me anytime if you have any questions.
When I went home I told Lynda that I was little surprised that the HR guy from Fredericton called and left a message for me at the office. She said I don’t understand why he would do that. I said no harm’s done. I had to tell a white lie to Sandy.
I briefed Lynda on details about how they will take care of our expenses. She was really pleased with that news.
She said what’s next. I said perhaps we should get in touch with some realtors to see if we can get our house listed for sale. She said I will take care of that tomorrow. She asked me when are you going to tell Mrs. Benda. I said we need to give her only one month notice and if everything works out the way we are planning, I will let her know on June 1st. In the meanwhile we need to look into getting rid of your car and trading in our Ford for a better car to drive to Fredericton. Once we get there, I may not need a car to drive to work which means that you can have the car. She said that sounds like a plan. I am sure we all going to miss the Buick.
It took only a week for Lynda to get the house listed. We made the asking price realistic to entice potential buyers. Lynda could have been a skilful real estate agent. The real estate lady became very friendly with Lynda and she let her speak to the potential buyers and explain the features of the house. The house was in a much better condition than when we bought it. It didn’t take too long to find the right buyer. If I remember correctly, we set the closing date on Monday, June 30, 1980.
Lynda was indeed a planner. She bought boxes and gradually started packing those things we didn’t need on a daily basis including the winter stuff. At the same time she started getting rid of the things we were not going to use again. She knew that the government was paying for the moving and we could have taken anything we wanted but she was very careful about it.
I was busy at work and was trying very hard to avoid Mrs. Benda as I didn’t see any need to confront her on those things which used to bother me. Mrs. Benda wasn’t happy because for some reason she didn’t get the house she wanted. She was still in the market but she had some unique requirements for the house they were hunting.
On Friday when I came home and wanted to take my family for the cheap spaghetti supper, Lynda told me that we needed to talk. We went in our bedroom and I said what’s up. She said she had a telephone call from one of our neighbours saying that our tenants in the townhome rented out rooms to other folks and there seemed to be so many people living in the townhome. I didn’t know what to say. We thought they were very nice people but we had been wrong before. Obviously, we were not very good judges of characters. Finally I said when we get back from the restaurant we will leave the kids at home and go see them.
When we went to our townhome, the guy came out and said everything’s fine and he’s looking after our property. I said to him that you must have realized that the townhome is designed for one family and we have reasons to believe that there’s more than one family living in the townhome. He said you are talking about my nephews. They are here only temporarily. I said how long do you consider temporary. He said three months. I said it’s not acceptable to us and we will have to get our lawyer to deal with that.
Lynda was really mad but she controlled her temper. We ended up getting our lawyer to deal with the situation and find new tenants as we failed miserably to find decent people who can be trusted with our property. I told Lynda that we are into too many things right now and we will be better off leaving it with our lawyer.
Lynda was in touch with Margret and she was so helpful in finding a place to rent in Fredericton. Lynda got the contact information for the home-owners and got on the phone to find out the details about the property. A young couple owned the house which was built only a year ago. The guy was an engineer and his company needed him in Waterloo, Ontario for a couple of years. Lynda was told that the house was located outside of the city close to the highway with an excellent city view and it shouldn’t take more than 12 minutes for me to drive to work downtown. He said the school is not too far but the kids will get a bus to school. She said he sounded happy that we got only two kids and he didn’t like to rent the house to people with more than two kids simply because it was only a four bedroom-house. He was also happy that I would be working for the government with a reliable source of income. Lynda told him that we will be there in a week to take a look at the property and further discuss the details.
The next Saturday we took a flight to Fredericton. The flying time was only around 2 hours. The airport was very small and when the plane landed we had to walk to the building. Gord came to pick us up and he took us to a nice hotel in downtown which was booked by Garry, the HR guy, for two nights. As soon as he dropped us off, Gord said Margret had planned a barbeque and he would pick us all up around 4:00 PM. We said sounds great.
We checked in. We thought it was a very nice hotel with a suite with nice furniture and comfortable beds. I asked if anybody’s hungry for lunch. They all were hungry. We had a nice lunch in the restaurant and decided to go out for a walk.
We were waiting for Gord just outside of the hotel around 4:00 PM when he showed up. It didn’t take too long to get to their place. Everybody including Dorothy (Gord’s mom) was waiting for us. Melody and Stephany were pleased to see Adam and Maxine. We all went in the garden where Margret had already set up everything for the barbeque. She was always so organized. It was nice to see Dorothy, she looked great. It didn’t take too long for Gord to start barbequing hamburgers, hotdogs, and steaks. Drinks were served and we never stopped talking. We had a wonderful evening.
Gord gave us a ride to our hotel and asked Lynda when is your appointment to see the house? She said it’s for 10:00 AM tomorrow morning. He said I will pick you up around 9:30 AM and he left. We got to our room and watched TV for a little while before we went to bed. Lynda was always the first person in the family to get up in the morning. There was a coffee machine in the room. She made coffee and brought it to me. I sat up in my bed and asked her what else she would like to do after seeing the house. She said we could have rented a car if we wanted to but Gord was kind enough to offer his services. She said we will just come back to our room then go out for lunch, then mooch around. I said it sounds like a plan.
Lynda liked the house very much. It was practically new and with almost 2,000 feet of living space. It had a huge kitchen and living room. Nice garden in the back, 4 spacious bedrooms, a TV room, and a double garage. The next closest neighbouring house was located at least a quarter mile away. I signed the papers and cheque and told them that the moving truck would be arriving either on July 5th or 6th. He said he wouldn’t be here but he would make it easier for us and gave us a set of keys right away. Lynda was happy with that kind of attitude.
Gord dropped us off at the hotel and said you have an appointment with Garry at 9:00 AM. He will take you to a group of managers to meet and they will ask you questions about your background, etc. Then he will take you around to introduce you to the folks you will be working with. Finally, he will bring you to my office to spend a few minutes with me. He said you should be back in less than 3 hours. I said no problem as our flight isn’t until 3:00 PM, so I have all the time we need and Lynda will take the kids shopping.
When I got to the conference room with Gary, I saw five senior managers siting there. I already knew one of them – Tony, I worked as his counterpart in Beaver Lumber Company. Gord had brought him to Fredericton as soon as he got here. It was a very friendly atmosphere as Tony told everybody enough about me. One of the senior managers said we are looking forward to working with me and we were very impressed with your level of confidence and performance in all different capacities working with Tony and reporting to Gord. I said – Is Tony lying again? Everybody laughed and then everything went smoothly.
By the time we got to Gord’s office he was waiting for me with a cup of coffee. Garry said I will be back in 15 minutes. I sat in the chair across from Gord. He had a nice office. He had a couple of frames of family pictures on the credenza which included the girls and Margret. He asked – how did it go? I said everything was just fine. They seemed to be a pleasant group of folks. He said – Appearances could be deceiving. I was surprised with his comment but decided to let it go. Gord and I chatted for a little while about the project I would be working on and it didn’t take too long for Garry to show up. I came out with Garry and he said – I know you’re going back this afternoon and I told the hotel not to bother you with the normal checking out time and you will have the room as long as you want. He also said – please send me all your receipts for your expenses and make sure that you get a cheque ASAP. I thanked him and walked to the hotel.
Before we left for the airport, Lynda called Margret and thanked her for their hospitality.
The kids were really tired when we got home. They missed one rehearsal for their annual school play. Adam and Maxine were assigned to play important parts. If I remember correctly, Adam was supposed to play a main character – Mickey Mouse.
The next day, Tuesday, after work I drove to Brampton to get mom. The kids wanted their nana to be there when they were acting in an important play. This way she could stay with us for a few days and we all would enjoy her company.
On Friday when I was leaving for the office, I asked Lynda if we were going out for the cheap spaghetti supper. She said, you don’t remember anything, do you? I said please remind me. She said the kids had to be at the school for their makeup and costumes around 5:00 PM. The show doesn’t start before 6:30 PM but we have to be there around 5:00 PM. So try to get home soon enough to have supper at home and go to the show. I said I think I got it now.
There were all kinds of little acts before the main act started. The main character, Mickey Mouse, was played by none other than our son, Adam M. Ali, a six-year old kid in Kindergarten. We were completely blown away with the performance of those little people on the stage. In addition to superb delivery of their lines and direction, the costumes, lighting, sound, and special effects were amazing. Everybody enjoyed the play. The clapping, standing ovation, and applause went on for minutes. Once the play was over, we waited for Adam and Maxine for a little while and when they arrived they were really tired. We told them how wonderful they did.
Next morning Lynda got a telephone call from her girlfriend. She asked Lynda if she had seen the newspaper. Lynda said which newspaper, she said the local newspaper. Lynda said I will go out and get it which we did only to find out that a huge review of the play was published in the paper with Adam’s picture. He was indeed the star of the show.
