Dad was still asleep, so I kissed him on the head and went back into the kitchen to eat with Mom. We talked and laughed for a while, just catching up on everything. Even though we talked almost every day when I was in Michigan, it was amazing how much we actually missed out of each other’s lives. Everything was going well until a pile of mail caught my attention out of the corner of my eye.
I reached over and picked it up. The entire stack was bills, and several of them had warnings about being overdue.
“Mom?” I asked. “What’s going on with this?”
She looked over at me it from the kitchen sink where she was already doing dishes and shook her head. “Oh, it’s nothing.”
“Nothing? This definitely looks like something.”
“We’re just behind on some of our bills. We’ll get it figured out,” she said.
“How are you going to get it figured out?”
“I don’t know yet. But we’ll figure out something. We always do.”
“Why didn’t you tell me about any of this?” I asked, looking through the bills and becoming more shocked and unnerved the more I saw.
Mom let out a sigh and dried her hands on a kitchen towel before turning around to look at me. “I was ashamed to tell you. You’re off in Michigan doing amazing things, and I didn’t want to have to admit to you that your father and I had gotten behind.”
“How did this happen?” I asked.
“His health insurance only paid but so much. Since he owns the business, there is no workman’s compensation. We had medical bills we had to deal with, and the loss of his income caught up to us. We thought we would be able to handle it with savings, but everything got more expensive than we expected it to. Especially after the surgery and that infection. He’s still battling that, but the doctors say if he just keeps taking his medication, he will get through it, too,” she said.
She was trying to distract me, to detour the conversation away from the matter at hand. But I wasn’t going to let her.
“Let me help.”
“You are,” she said. “You came all the way out here to help take care of him.”
“That’s not what I mean. Let me help you pay these bills.”
“No, Ava. That’s not necessary. You already left your entire life to come back here. We can’t ask you to help us like that, too.”
“You didn’t ask,” I said. “I know you never would. That’s why I’m offering. Let me do this for you. My job pays really well, and I was able to build up a really good savings. I have the money to help you out.”
“You can’t give up your savings, Ava. That’s for your future,” Mom said.
“And you are my present,” I said. “Besides, I’m young enough to save up again. What’s the point of having savings if I can’t help my parents? You gave up everything for me. You worked hard and made sure I had a wonderful life growing up. I want to be able to do the same thing for you.”
“Thank you, honey. Really, it means so much to me that you would offer. And I know how much it would mean to your father, too. But we just can’t accept it. It means the world to me that you came out here so that you could help me take care of him. That’s enough.”
I looked at her for a few seconds, then shook my head. “That’s not good enough. I’m going to help you. That’s final.”
We ate dessert without talking about the bills any further. By the time we were finishing up, my father woke up and I was able to go into the living room and spend some time with him. Despite his pain and constant stream of medication in his system, he was in good spirits. We had fun talking, then did a few rounds of our favorite card game. When he started to feel tired again, I kissed them goodbye and headed home.
As soon as I got back to the apartment, I sat down to think about the situation. What I told my mother about my savings was true. I made good money in Michigan and put away most of it. Despite my larger apartment, my cost of living really wasn’t very high. I didn’t go out and party or even spend a tremendous amount of time socializing. I spent time with my friends, but we rarely did anything expensive. Saving up for a rainy day was something my father had instilled in me from the time I was very young. That’s what I had been doing since I got my job, and now I was so happy I did.
If ever there was a rainy day, this was it.
But I had to be realistic. My savings was only going to go so far. I could pay up their bills for them and give them a bit of a cushion for a little while. But none of us knew how long Dad’s recovery would actually take. My mother’s job brought in a small income, but she would likely need my help so she didn’t get behind again. If I was going to be able to help them and also support myself, having a job was the only way to sustain the arrangement. It would make sure I had enough money for both responsibilities for as long as it was needed.