Diary of an Old Businesswoman! Christie smiled when Douglas brought the suggestion of the book title to her.
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“I like it. It sounds more like the truth” They both shared laughter and lemonade as they spoke.
“Well, you said you didn't like ‘Struggles of an Average Business Woman' so I changed it”.
“This one sounds better. My son may not approve of it though” They both laughed again. Christie lifted her glass to her lips and drank deeply.
“What are you going to do now Christie?” Douglas asked after a long moment of silence.
“What do you mean boy? There's a whole lot for a 70-year-old to do. For instance, she could go on an adventure to the moon and name some stars while at it… “ Douglas's laughter interrupted her midway. “There's not much for me to do here, son. I guess I'll spend my days writing and knitting. Kevin brings the kids home on most weekends so I'll spend some time babysitting”.
“Don't make old age sound so awful” Douglas said, causing them both to explode in another round of laughter.
“I'm just not used to sitting at home all day, doing nothing.”
Douglas offered a sympathetic smile.
“I have to be on my way, Christie. Thanks for the lemonade” She rubbed his arm affectionately.
“Say hi to that skinny blonde you want to get married to” Douglas grinned and left the patio
Christie allowed that dreamy smile to sit on her face for a while before she heaved herself up to go into her cabin. She spoke with her daughter-in-law, Priscilla every day at 6 pm since her first son, Kingsley died. It was a few minutes to 6 pm now.
As she made her way from the patio to her bedroom, she looked at the pictures of all her loved ones hanging from the living room through the staircase and over to her bedroom. There was her husband, Derrick, who died 15 years ago in the army, her first son Kingsley who died in a railroad accident, her only surviving son Robert who lived a few streets away.
There were Dorothy and Kimberly, her granddaughters, and Paul and Silas, her grandsons.
She was a woman who had lost a lot but recently, in her old years, she seemed to be gaining so much more.
The phone began to ring even before she got to her bedroom.
“Hey, mom”. Linda, Christie's daughter-in-law, had lost her mother in a fire incident when she was little. She bonded with Christie from when Kingsley brought her home and both called and treated her as “mom”.
“Hey, What's up”
“I'm good, Mom. How are you?”. Christie chuckled.
“Excited. The editor came around today. He gave a better title for my book. ‘Diary of an old businesswoman’. What do you think?”
“I don't like the word ‘old’ in it. It makes me envision you as an aged woman”
Christie cackled with laughter.
“You're something else. I just want to tell the story of how I started in a local store across the street, how my business began to expand and how I had to run from bank to bank, waiting in queues to deposit and withdraw money.”
Christie heard Linda sigh over the phone.
“You've been through a lot, Mom,”
“Yeah, and a lot has been through me cos I never gave up. Kid, I began to set some days aside for transactions in the bank. I would open the store three times a week and spend the two remaining working days standing in the bank. It got a lot easier when I was pregnant with my Robert. Kingsley was just a baby then. About two years….”
Linda sniffled over the phone. “I can imagine him as a 2-year-old.” Her voice was shaky.
“That's okay, sweetheart. I was so thankful when Robert introduced me to financial technology, mobile banking and the rest, years later. But then I was scared at first”.
Linda chuckled “Who wasn't?”
“I had no choice though. I was tired of running around just to deposit some cash. And digital payments came in too, My life got easier. So, that title is totally fine with me. After all, I am an old businesswoman”
“I feel challenged. You wrote all of this into a book within the space of nine months, I cannot wait to read the entire book. You're such an amazing woman.”
Christie let out a low laugh.
“I'm just a businesswoman, Lin. I want to tell my story to the world and make some money while at it”
“Ohhh, I see what you did there,” Linda said, causing them both to laugh excitedly.
Christie smiled after their final pleasantries. She was content with the new title she had found for both herself and her book, “The Old Businesswoman”.
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