And shortly after arriving back at their home, the miracle improved. Jemima received a phone call from Molly telling her that she would have the lease ready for signing the next day. The family could begin moving in as early as tomorrow. She also told her that her neighbor had several trucks had volunteered to help with the move.
As soon as Prentice left for work, Jemima loaded her car with some of the family’s personal belongings, dropped the three children off at their school, and then made a bee-line to the farm. Molly was on the porch as she drove up and parked, and invited her to come into the dining room for coffee and pie. As soon as she sat down at the table, a smiling Molly shoved the lease over to her for her to sign. Jemima signed it without even reading it, trusting Molly and her attorney, implicitly.
‘Welcome to you and your family,’ said Molly, gripping Jemima’s hand. ‘I’m so happy about it, and I know it will mean an enriched future for us all.’
Before leaving, Jemima took the personal items she’d brought with her to the apartment and carried out a quick survey of its layout and contents. She had been in the apartment several times before, to dust and vacuum, but had not remembered how it was laid out.
Now she could see that it had three bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitchen/dining room combination, and a living room. Each bedroom had a large closet, a queen-sized bed, and a dresser, and the kitchen was furnished with a refrigerator, range and dishwasher, and the apartment was heated and cooled by a combination furnace and air conditioner, contained in a utility room, along with the hot-water tank. It was altogether a substantially larger and better arranged than the house they had been living in. She made a decision to give the largest bedroom to the girls, while the smallest would go to Martin, and the medium-sized one would be occupied by her and Prentice.
Two days later they made their move, with June’s son Norm and his oldest son providing one of their trucks as well as their labor. The move took less than half a day to complete. The children had already been enrolled in their new school, and the owner of their rental home notified. They were so desperate to get the children away from their hellish environment that they paid the rent up to the end of the 30-day notice without hesitation, even though they would not be living in it.
As they settled in, the extended family lived very harmoniously and happily together, to the great benefit of each one of them, including Molly and her family who knew she was well looked after.
From the first day of living on the farm, until their dying day, all five members of the family would thank their lucky stars. Jemima and Prentice were happy beyond words. The children had never looked back, responding to their new environment and opportunities with such gratitude, joy and enthusiasm that they propelled themselves through the educational system with high academic achievement and honors. From the beginning, they loved their school and their teachers, and responded to living on the farm like baby ducks taking to water.
Jemima turned out to be even a better housekeeper and cook than Molly had imagined, while Prentice proved to be an exceptionally responsible and skilled handyman about the farm.
Moreover, Jemima volunteered to cook, do the laundry, and clean their rooms for the homeless veterans. Prentice had already joined the American Legion Post, so he volunteered to supervise the veterans living on the farm. He would see that they not only were provided with room and board, but also with therapeutic work, helping to care for the farm’s animals, garden and orchard. A program bonus was that June’s family hired many of the veterans for part-time and even full-time employment in their expanding share-cropping, organic-produce business. Eventually, there were as many as a dozen homeless veterans living on the farm at any one time, keeping Jemima and Prentice very busy. Molly’s care and generosity of the homeless veterans’ program continued even after her death, when she left much of the residue of her estate - a substantial amount - to the American Legion Post, specifically dedicated to the program,
And that wasn’t all she’d bequeathed to others. In Molly’s will, she’d provided for college educations for each of her new ‘great-grandchildren’ – Jemima and Prentice’s grandchildren. Not only that, but to the great surprise of Jemima and Prentice, she had extended the lease on their apartment until the end of their lives. It was the least she could do for such dear friends, she’d told her attorney …
It was Jemima who’d found Molly, at the end. Apparently, Molly had suffered from heart fibrillation episodes and high blood pressure. At the age of 95, she had the most serious episode of all and needed to be hospitalized, but they managed to stabilize her and sent her home. Over the next few days, she remained in a relatively stable condition.