Unto The Third Generation E-Book

Suzann Dodd

• Herausgeber: BookRix
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

The gaining of wealth is done by those committed to work.  The losing of wealth by those who seek to live off their legacy.  This is a semi-fictional account of a family that went from poverty to plenty and then back again over three generations. It is almost trite that the grand children of millionaires lose the fortune.

Leseprobe

Suzann Dodd

Unto The Third Generation

BookRix GmbH & Co. KG80331 Munich

Chapter One

Edward Rashford had an idea. His wife, Nancy,  told him to follow his dream. At the time, they occupied two rooms in a house owned by her uncle; they in one room, their three sons in the other.  They shared a toilet with five other people.  At least, they paid no rent.

The Rashfords were poor, always had been.  They knew hardship and were accustomed to doing without, as were their children. For a man like Edward to have an idea, a dream,  was a pig flying.  But Nancy believed in him, and he believed in himself.

So shabby, uneducated Edward Rashford, began his quest.  It started in abandoned warehouse. He had heard the owner had died twenty years before, leaving no heirs.  The building was vacant, save for rats. 

Edward didn't have money to get a lawyer and didn't know how to verify who owned the warehouse or why it was abandoned. But, he had courage.  He slipped of work at the factory, walked three miles to the titles office, to attempt to learn what he could about the property.  As he was humble and needful, the clerk did checks on his behalf.  She told him how he could get his name on the Title, and helped him fill out the forms. 

Feeling confident, he went back work, luck was with him, for the boss hadn't noticed how long he had been gone.  That evening, after a tiny meal, he walked to the warehouse, proceeded to clean it, set it up.

It took a long time as he worked at the factory six days a week, but by sacrificing sleep, he was able to make it suitable for his purposes in a reasonable time.

He started a business.  He couldn't quit his job, but could work before and after sign in/sign out, and Nancy could help.

Nancy would send the children to school, then work in the business.  The children would come to the warehouse after school and would remain until Edward arrived.   When he did,  Nancy would take the children home to eat and bathe, and sleep.

Edward worked without pause, and slowly, his business began to make money.  His first hurdle was to pay for the title, and the back taxes.  It was not quick, it took time, but it was accomplished.

His eldest son, Eric, left school at fourteen to help.  The business began to thrive.   This was when Edward left his job at the factory to work full time in his business.   Late at night he laboured to make the rooms above the warehouse into a flat.   It took a long time, but then came the wonderful day he and his family moved from Nancy's Uncle's house into what would be their first home.

It might seem drab and a bit unpleasant, but to Edward and Nancy who had known only poverty, it was a palace.  They had their own bathroom, their own kitchen, a living room, a dining room... space.

Edward worked every day. Nancy helped when she could. Eric was the most dedicated employee. He  worked hard, with committment and dedication.   This enabled Edward to find another abandoned premises and open another business, leaving this one in the hands of Nancy and Eric.

Sam and John, their two other children,  helped after school and on weekends.   They were able to attend and graduate High School, the first in the family to do so.  They came into the business, working under their elder brother or their father a few days after their graduation.

Then, surprisingly, late in life, Nancy became pregnant.  She had another son they called David.

Unlike his parents and brothers, David grew up never having to do without. He had enough to eat, clothes to wear, a sense of himself as wealthy.   This was confirmed when the family moved to a beautiful mansion two miles away when he was just a child.

For David, the flat above the warehouse was poverty. For the others, who remembered what it was to be crammed into small rooms and have to share a toilet with others, it had been a palace.   

Where Eric struggled through school, without books, without good shoes or a warm coat, David had everything. When David came home from school it was to play, not to work.

Although David did not do that well at school, his parents had money and could pay for him to enter college.  This confirmed his sense of himself as superior.

Chapter Two

Eric Nathan, the eldest son of Edward and Nancy Rashford, lived the life of his parents. He was born poor and knew hunger. He knew what it was like not have a warm coat or good shoes, or text books.  Eric had to leave school to work in the business.  To him, making money was survival.   He worked as he breathed.

The middle sons, Sam and John, barely recalled living in Uncle's house. For them, home had been the rooms above the warehouse.  They had graduated High School and come to work in the business as a job, not survival.   Moving to the mansion was to them, the next step in a process.

David, the surprise last child,  scarely recalled the warehouse, for him, the mansion that was bought when he was three, was home.

Where Eric came to work at fourteen, Sam and John worked part time until eighteen, when they came full time.  However, they worked five days a week.  They took weekends, they took vacations.   To them, this was a job, not life and death.

  David, however, never worked.  He went to school and having everything, flaunted it.  He had no interest in learning, he liked showing off, playing, and enjoying life.

He had been sent to the best private school, graduated and went to college.  The first member of the Rashford's to attend college.  This, of course, moved Sam and John, the first to graduate High School,  to second place.