Dream it Forward

Mr. and Mrs. Ives lived in a small town in rural Georgia. The couple had been high school sweethearts, married right after graduation, and have been together for over 60 years. They were the ideal marriage everyone hopes for. The couple worked hard to make a good life for themselves and their three children. Now grown with their own careers and spouses scattered about the country, the Ives’ got to enjoy their retirement on their front porch sipping sweet tea.

When Mrs. Ives became ill, their children didn’t feel the need to retreat home. The Ives were left no choice but to hire some help. Of course they were not the wealthiest of folks so they hired a neighbors daughter, Lana, who was looking to save up for college. Mr. Ives wasn’t thrilled with the decision at first, he thought he could handle taking care of Mrs. Ives and their home on his own. Mrs. Ives sweet talked him into seeing it as a favor to Lana, to help her make something of herself, like they did with their children. He came around to the idea and hired her.

Lana wanted to become a surgeon, that meant a lot of schooling along with a lot of school debt. She had already been accepted to Stanford for the fall. She had been saving every cent she earned from babysitting, her part time job at the gas station after school, and anything she got for birthdays in the last few years. Her parents on the other hand knew they couldn’t afford that kind of schooling for her. They also didn’t want her to be so far away from family. So they convinced her to apply to some local colleges and to become a teacher to stay close to them. Lana knew it would be hard to follow her dream and tried to weigh that against doing what was good for her family. In the end her family seemed more important to her. Resentment was starting to creep up on her so she jumped at the chance to get out of the house when Mr. Ives offered her the job.

The Ives didn’t have a big house by any means but it did fit a family of 5 comfortably. Growing up their only daughter had her own room and their two boys shared one. After they had all moved out, Mr. Ives turned one room into a home office. A desk faced the window and some large bookshelves lined the walls. Mr. Ives loved to read. Being retired for the last ten years or so it was easy for him to grow his collection of books quickly. Mrs. Ives turned the boys room into a quilting room, but left a bed in there just in case one of the children ever wanted to visit home for more than just a day.

One day Lana was dusting and wondered in to the office. It was always kept pretty tidy, Mr. Ives may have had a spot of OCD, but Lana would go in and dust his books off every once in a while. Lana liked to read too and was always entranced by his large collection. Dusting the shelves gave her an excuse to skim the titles and ask if she could borrow one for a couple of days. He never said no.

Lana worked for the Ives’ for most of her senior year. Right before summer started Mrs. Ives had passed away. Mr Ives decided to keep Lana on just to have a distraction from dwelling on the fact that the love of his life was gone. With Mrs. Ives being gone Lana knew money would be tight for Mr. Ives. She told him she couldn’t accept anymore payment from him. Even though he tried every week to pay her, she refused.

The Ives children had sat down with their father and tried to convince him to downsize. They felt he would be better in an assisted living facility and to sell the house. It was pretty obvious they didn’t want the responsibility of taking care of their father. Mr. Ives couldn’t fathom leaving his and his wife’s house. They had worked hard to buy it and even harder to make it a home. His daughter had a way with words just like his wife had. She convinced him to put the house up for sale.

The children didn’t stick around to help their father pack up the home they grew up in. They offered Lana compensation to help their father put a life time of memories into a few measly boxes. Lana came by every day to help him pack. Together they tackled every room. Mr Ives would pick something up, look it over and decide if he wanted to keep it or not. Then Lana would either dispose of it or pack it in a box. While they packed they talked about Lana going to college for something her parents wanted her to be but how she really wanted to be a surgeon. She told him she wanted to do what was best for her family and she knew they would never have the money for medical school.

Mr. Ives could relate. He told her how he had imagined himself graduating high school and moving out of Georgia. He wanted to travel but he fell in love, and his love wanted to settle down and have a family. He sacrificed his dream for the woman he loved. He never regretted it but he always wondered what his life would have been. He told Lana how him and Mrs. Ives would get into meaningless fights because he had this pent up resentment of wanting something else. He loved her very dearly and would never trade those years with her but he felt it was too late to see what he could have done with his life.

Each room got packed in what seemed like no time, until his bedroom. There were a lot of Mrs. Ives keepsakes and some of his own. It took them two weeks to go through everything. It took a toll on Mr. Ives everyday, Lana could see it. He would barely hold a conversation, he started to slump over a bit, and she would catch him trying to hide a tear. A few weeks before Lana was supposed to leave for school Mr. Ives passed away from a broken heart. He couldn’t stand being here with out his love.

Lana agreed with the family to pack up the remainder of the house for them. Though the only things left besides some everyday stuff Mr. Ives was using was what was in the office. The family didn’t care about much and said she could have his collection of books. Lana was about to move in to a small dorm that she would have to share with someone else. She wasn’t sure where she was going to keep all of them. Never the less she boxed them up and brought them to her house. The week before she left for school she heard rumors about the family fighting over the house because Mr. Ives left them nothing. The money was all they ever cared about.

Lana went off to school. The first semester flew by before she knew it. She came home for the holidays with out giving the Ives family a thought. She went back to school for the second semester and made plans for a few summer jobs to help pay for the next year of school. She didn’t come from much but she tried her best to better herself and be there for her family. When she came home from her first year of college she decided to organize and maybe start one of the books Mr. Ives had left for her.

After a couple days of sorting and getting distracted by covers and titles, she finally got to the last box of books. As she unpacked it a small black book fell from between two of the books in her hand. It landed on her desk chair. As she picked it up she looked at the picture she had on her windowsill of her with the Ives. She remembered the time she spent with each of them and felt a wave of warmth sooth her. The little black book was small, leather bound, and looked as old as the Ives did in that picture. She didn’t remember seeing it on the shelves when it lived at the Ives’ and figured it accidentally got stashed between the books. She opened the book and there on the first page was Mr. Ives’ handwriting.

Dear Lana,

Follow your dreams. Don’t let your life slip away from you, no matter how good of a life it is. It could always be great. Check the books!

-Jim Ives

A tear fell from Lana’s eye as she scanned the many books scattered around her room. For a moment she was frozen. When she didn’t feel so numb anymore she knelt down next to one of the stacks and picked up a book. She flipped through the pages. A hundred dollar bill was tucked in a page, and then another. She flipped the book upside down another fell out. She frantically started shaking the money out of each book. She could not believe it! She brought her knees to her chest and started crying. After she collected herself she did the same with the money. It was $20,000! She knew it would only be a dent of what she would need but she knew it was a start.