." she cried."Ah, ah, please save me the sorrow and pity. Mom and Dad wrote me off, so I sat down and thought, who would I most like to see one more t...me?"She hugged him to her, but he began coughing uncontrollably, spitting up blood."Pneumonia," he finally managed to whisper in between coughing spells, "but let me look at you," he said lifting his arm weakly to pull back her hair.She started to pull away, hide her face from him, but somehow could not. There was no revulsion in his eyes, not. Calm down.’ He didn’t calm down, though, he fell over, yelping in pain. John’s wife jumped up and ran to him. It was touching in a way. She’d never cared that much for John. ‘I’m leaving,’ he announced. ‘I’ll be back tomorrow for my stuff. Don’t be here.’ ‘I want the house,’ was all she said back to him. He laughed. ‘You can have it,’ he said. ‘But I get the vacation cabin.’ And she laughed at THAT. He looked into her eyes, and they both seemed to realize at the same moment that there was no. "I woke up at one in the morning for a bathroom trip and saw that the living room lights were still on. I grinned to myself and thought that if she got five of the ten correct, I would call it a success.She came into the kitchen the next morning. I teased, "Late night for you?"She smiled, "Not real bad."I only had three sales calls that day and came back at about four. Holly was in the kitchen cooking. She yelled, "Hi, I'll be right out."She walked into the living room. A smudge of flour was on. The pay was a bit lower than I had hoped but the work was certainly fascinating and rewarding. MMI designed and sold various medical instruments like ultrasound machines, CAT scanners, MRI machines, along with a line of smaller gadgets like IV regulators and endoscopes.They hired me as a systems engineer. I found myself doing everything from writing software to designing hardware to entertaining customers. My boss, Arnie Foster, and I became friends during this time. Arnie was seven years older.