Page 175 - Where the Dream Ends ebook

Insurance

When his father arrived home for dinner well past seven
pm, all that was missing on the deal was his signature. With
Harry’s mother’s help, it took the insurance salesman less than
an hour to convince him to sign. His father was too exhausted
to even read the contract.

* * *

Harry’s father had originally financed the house with a 30-
year, low-interest bank mortgage, secured with his boss’s rec-
ommendation and signature; but because of his father’s age,
the insurance company wouldn’t refinance the loan under the
same terms. The new mortgage came due when Harry’s father
turned seventy-five, in less than twelve years. The monthly
payment on the new loan was three times what it previously
had been. Harry’s mother, though she did not entirely grasp
all the ramifications of the agreement, knew enough when she
convinced his father to sign the papers that there would be hell
to pay down the road; she just couldn’t see past the $15,000
in cash.

For the first few weeks after the check arrived, there were
good times: new furniture in the living room, a patio off
the kitchen, a new car. Harry’s mother appeared at Temple
for the high holy days in fashionable new clothes. There was
even enough money left after the shopping spree for the first
monthly mortgage and insurance payment. When the second
monthly bill arrived, there was barely enough left to make ends
meet. By the third month, when the money was all gone, Har-
ry’s mother acknowledged the deception.

It was Harry’s brother who finally bailed them out; but
the humiliation was more than his mother could endure. She

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