As the day progressed and mother’s voice became loud enough to carry throughout the house, I understand why she was so upset. When my parents had made the decision to pull my sister and I from public schools to homeschool us, she had quit her job to stay at home. She hadn’t worked in seven years and had little desire to return to work.
Father’s life insurance policy should have made us rich. But the policy had a number of loopholes, and dying as a result of your own drunken driving was one of the causes of death which the insurance company wouldn’t pay out, no matter what manager mother asked to speak with or the threats of lawsuits that she delivered.
As the next weeks passed, mother sold off every item of my father’s and Elaine’s that she could get a buyer for. A month later, my sister’s room was as barren as my own. And I was alone.