Thanks to Kanga40 for her wonderful editing skills on this story.
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We met in college. After dating for several years we finally got married. Tricia was my life. We had been married for a year when the house came up for sale. It was a dream home for just about anyone.
The house had been built in 1939 as a mansion for some rich socialite. She'd been married and raised their children there. Her husband passed on yet she still lived in that big old house. It was huge, sitting on ten acres of land.
Normally, such a place would have been way out of reach for us, a barely married young couple, but for a few things that happened at that time. We had longed for a house like this one, and it fit the bill to what we wanted to grow into someday.
Tricia's father, who had retired due to ill health, died suddenly. In his will he left her a few hundred thousand dollars and some items he knew I'd probably like to have. The second thing that happened was the death of the socialite.
She'd been up in years and her kids were out on their own, all married. She'd let the place get run down, I suppose money may have been tight for her at times too. Needless to say, when it went on the sale block and people came to look but there were no takers. It had been for sale for two years by the time Tricia and I noticed it.
The family wanted the estate settled. Since they didn't have the time in their busy lives to bother with repairs and things needed to bring it into saleable condition, they told the real estate agent to dump it for whatever they could get.
Being as it was a depressed housing market at the time, even the realtor didn't want to mess with it, fearing that it would turn into a money pit. For someone like us it was a dream come true.
Our sudden income and the situation with the estate led to us putting down a very modest offer and the agent jumped on pushing the estate people to take it. In that way Tricia and I managed to buy a house worth almost a million dollars for three hundred thousand.
Since we had that in cash, when we went to the bank and told them of our plans to purchase the home and fix it up, they gave us a loan to buy it for our offer. We then used a chunk of the inheritance from Tricia's dad's estate to fix up the house and make it more than a home to us.
We had a swimming pool installed, and I built a deck and installed a hot tub that fit the site perfectly. We fixed up rooms in the house and after the place was all done, we started on the caretaker's cottage, fixing it up for visiting guests. Soon our kids were making noises in the yard and pool, and we were a loving and close family.
Life went on and the kids grew up and moved out. Tricia and I still lived in our now huge home, and enjoyed being with each other. The only dark in the cloud came when a few years after our youngest daughter got married.
Tricia went to town to go shopping. She stopped at a convenience store to get gas for her car. It was one of those she was in the wrong place at the wrong time things and as she was paying for the gas a man walked in and pulled a gun. The robbery ended up with the love of my life dead on the floor, the clerk mortally wounded in the hospital and the robber shot to doll rags near Tricia's car.
The funeral was hard, but life afterwards was harder still. I kept the house and eventually hired a maid and groundkeeper to take care of the place. I, in the mean time, just went to work and filled in the hours trying to stay sane. A huge open hole invaded my life, and at times it was all I could do to live day to day.
I'd see Tricia in the house it seemed, and there were times when I'd see something or think of a time in the past, and it would almost be too much. My kids stopped by often, worrying about me I'm sure. I'd put on a happy face for them but I knew they knew I was faking it.
"Dad, why don't you sell this place and buy a smaller house, or even get a condo?"
Sally was my youngest and she worried about me constantly.
"I've put in a lot of blood, sweat, and tears here Sally, there's no way I could sell this place."
The memories stirred once again as I thought of the things Tricia and I had done together over the years to make this house into a home for our family.
"It's so large though dad. I mean, eight rooms in the main house and four in the caretakers cottage... you don't need all that space any more do you? Wouldn't it be better to move into a smaller place and... well, maybe get out of the memories this place brings to you?"
"Your mother and I fixed this place into what it is today. I can't sell a dream baby. I can't walk away from this place either. It's in my blood now. Can't you see? I know you're worried about me, but trust me, I'm okay, and someday soon I'll be far better. It's just going to take some time yet... just some more time."
"I'm just worried about you dad, that's all. I know you miss mom. It's been hardest on you and I see you sitting in your chair sometimes and it just kills me to know how much you're still hurting. You need to do something... anything to get your mind off the past and move on. I know you'll never forget Mom, none of us will."
I knew she was right. Sally had always had that way of talking to me that let me know, just by the tone of her voice, that she loved me and worried about me. I knew the other kids were worried too since they kept in close contact with me and their youngest sister.
Three kids we'd raised and they'd all turned out great. Jim was an engineer with a construction firm, John was a lawyer with a corporation in the city and Sally, taught school. All good kids and all with families of their own who didn't need to be bothered with their old man being so unhappy. I resolved that I'd work on fixing the situation sooner than later.
I was still relatively young, and in my work I dealt with constant change. I'd spend many evenings taking prospective clients to dinners, wining and dining as it goes, to persuade them to do business with our firm. It was old hat for me to read a person and get a feel for what they'd want in the way of entertainment.
Usually, now days, entertainment was dinner and perhaps a night at a bar or club. In the old days I remembered fixing clients up with certain types of women time to time. I was never proud of those moments, but in the old days one did what one could to obtain and keep clients.
I never used or even thought of stepping outside my vows of marriage, since it just wasn't in me to do something like that. My wife Tricia was more than I needed. She was beautiful, loving, and a very sexual person in her own right. We'd meshed together from the start and I'd never had a thought of doing something to screw that up.
That's not to say I wouldn't look at some beautiful woman, or be in situations where I'd flirt, because that happened pretty often. It was that I always knew what I had at home was far better and far more valuable than anything I could find elsewhere. I was always confident that Tricia felt the same way. We were a matched set and we always had been. That was part of the reason her loss had been so difficult for me.
Now I was alone in this huge old place that was filled with memories. Briefly I thought about Sally's push to selling this place. Just as firmly as I'd told her, I put it out of my mind. I just couldn't sell it. Not after all these years of hard work we'd put into fixing it into our home.
Work on Friday was hectic and I was busy trying to sell our product to a couple of sharp young businessmen.
"You know of a place where we could go have a few beers and maybe watch some dancing, Randy?"
The client was younger than most I dealt with. His partner was about the same age, and they were both single. I wasn't sure how to respond to the question, since I wasn't sure if he meant what I thought he meant. I hadn't been pressed for 'that' type of entertainment in years.
"Dancing?"
