Surreptitious Gifts

Funerals are sad family reunions with splashes of happy, bittersweet, grateful, etc. thrown in as stories are shared. This one has been exceptional in that regard.

After the viewing today as we gathered at the house, my foster sisters told the story of how my foster brother, who was married with young children while attending dental school, told my foster dad that something was wrong with the gas gauge in his car and he needed him to look at it, as it always read full and he was afraid of being stranded somewhere when the car ran out of gas because of a faulty gauge.

Turns out his dad was going over to his place at 3AM on his way in to work at the airport and taking the car and filling it up. That was quintessential Gene...charity performed circumspectly (with a dash of humor thrown in.)

On the way to the viewing, my foster mom unveiled a similarly surreptitious act that benefitted me, one that went way beyond free gas.

"You were never our foster child," she told me.

I figured she was speaking metaphorically. She wasn't.

Turns out when the social worker visited for the home inspection as part of the foster home licensing process, they were informed they couldn't be licensed because they had too many children in the home for the number of bedrooms. So they had a judge sign guardianship papers instead.

I continued to live with them, thinking they were pretty special because they'd become foster parents just for me. I had no idea how special.

I knew they were experiencing financial hardship at the time because Flying Tigers, the freight airline he worked for, had recently cut all wages to the 10 years previous pay level as part of a desperate bid to avoid bankruptcy. (It didn't work.) He was supporting a wife and 10 children on $26K/year. But I felt good that they were at least receiving ~$236/month for me from the county.

Well, no they weren't.

Guardianship didn't come with compensation from the county.

"I keep telling you that we considered you one of ours," my foster mom said.

Make that "my mom said."

Feeling awed, and speechless. These two truly are Latter-Day Saints!