“Only people who are capable of loving strongly can also suffer great sorrow, but this same necessity of loving serves to counteract their grief and heals them.” ― Leo Tolstoy
While I was still trying to find something to do day time in the vicinity, I came across a better job through an agency in my own field to work days. I started working for Beaver Lumber Company to deal with their computerized warehousing system. It was a much better and challenging job with a substantial raise in my salary. I didn’t like to leave Playtex because they had been very good to me but I explained to them that I needed to make more money as I got a family to support now. I offered to work nights for them until they find somebody to replace me. I worked both jobs for a little while and made some extra money which Lynda didn’t mind.
I found out that Beaver Lumber Company was one of the several subsidiaries of Molson Brewery. Beaver Lumber was a building supply chain, Canada’s fourth largest building supply with 138 stores across Canada. In 2000, it was purchased by Home Hardware, a cooperative of over 1000 independent Canadian Hardware Stores.
The person, Gord Scott, who hired me, was used to be a big shot in the Molson Brewery who was on loan from the head office. He was in-charge of all Data Processing Departments throughout their subsidiaries. He was at Beaver Lumber with a team of system analysts, programmers, and system support folks to design and implement a new computerized warehousing system and he was faced with all kind of challenges. They had a unique computer system called Singer system 10 and I thought they only make sewing machines.
If my memory serves me correctly, I remember my interview with Gord Scott. He told me that he liked my background and he asked me what I am looking for. I told him that while I am curious to learn new tricks of the trade any day but right now my focus is to make more money to support my family and the new house that we just bought. He said I like your straightforward attitude and asked me would I take the job, if he made an offer. I said it all depends how much the job is going to offer as I am not desperate for a job, I already have one. What I needed is a better job with more responsibilities and more money. He said there’s nothing wrong with that approach but my problem is while I am impressed with your background on the paper, I am not sure if you are capable of helping me. He said, if you helped me getting out of the mess he was in, he can promote me right away. As soon as I heard that I stood up and shook his hands and I said you got a deal. He said don’t you want to know how much I am going to offer you right now. I said I will leave it up to you and we became life-long friends.
I got promoted within 5 weeks to take over their computer operations which operated around the clock. Now I was making more money than what I used to make by working two jobs. Lynda was happy. What she was not happy about that in addition to working day shift, I used to carry a pager with me all the time which used to beep whenever there was a problem at the datacentre and they needed me to trouble shoot. I used to get on the phone right away to help them out. It was a kind of annoying as it used to get beeped mostly in the middle of the nights and I used to get on the phone to talk to them for a while which was definitely disturbing for the kids.
After working there for a little while, Gord Scott invited us to come to their place on one weekend. Maxine was away that weekend, so we decided to take Adam with us. Gord and Margret had a beautiful home in a small town some 25 kilometre away from our place. Lynda and Margret got along very well and we had a nice meal at their place.
If I remember correctly, Margret was pregnant with Melody and she was much younger than Gord. Eventually, we found out that Margret was the third wife and Gord had grownup kids with his other wives. It didn’t make any difference to us as Lynda was completely impressed with Margret and they because friends.
We celebrated Adam’s first birthday in our new home. Lynda invited a couple of kids from the next door and Lynda’s sister Estelle with her husband, John and their two kids, Debby and Peter also came to the party. Of course mom was there, too. Kids played together for a little while and we all had a nice meal cooked by our beloved Lynda.
