Movin’n on uZ

I worked for Kingssbury Homes for several months and learned a lot about building houses. I also learned I really liked it. During this time things weren’t going very well at home. Susan and I weren’t getting along at all. I was traveling every week in my job. Sometimes just for a couple of days and sometimes for a week or more. That wasn’t all of our problem but it certainly didn’t help things. It got to the point we decided a separation was eminent. I spent several weeks thinking about what I was going to do and finally decided I was going back out west. I decided on Washington state because I knew a few people there that I thought could help me find a job. I made contact with them and started making preparations. I traded one of our cars in on a new pick up thinking I would need it to haul my ” stuff”. I went ahead and quit my job at Kingsbury. I was still playing every Saturday at the Nevada Club and had become better acquainted with J.D. House a builder in Holdenville. I was all excited about the building business and enjoyed talking with him about it. Just days before was set to leave for the west coast, Gary called me and told me he had talked to J. D. And he had asked him if I would be interested in joining his company. I was very interested and arranged a meeting with him. At the time he wasn’t building any houses just commercial buildings. He told me he would like to build some houses and offered me a partnership in the house building part of his company. I explained that I had some martial problems and so he told me I could live in one of his apartments and use it as both an office and a place to live. Man was I excited. I quickly moved into the apartment and began building houses. I loved it. I settled into my new life even dating a little but I mostly concentrated on my new career. Living alone and being away from Shannon wasn’t a lot of fun but I saw her a lot so it wasn’t bad. I don’t remember how long we were separated, a few months I guess but some how we began to communicate again and first thing you know we were back together. I talked with J.D. and arranged to move into a two bedroom apartment because we had sold our house.a wise man told me once that if a marriage didn’t work the first time around it probably wouldn’t the second. I wish I had listened. I loved the building business. J.D. just turned the housing part of the business over to me. We were buying and building Kingsbury houses so I was very familiar with the framing part. I had a lot to learn about all the other trades but because I liked it some much I took the time and put forth the effort to Learn. We sold our first two houses pretty fast so I was off and running. I started getting calls for custom houses. I landed a couple of those and quickly learned there is much more headaches building customs than spec homes. For those not familiar with building terms. Spec homes are built to sell, custom homes are pre sold and built to suit. Dealing with homeowners during the building process is sometimes a pain but on the other hand sometimes it’s a pleasure. I had both kind. Right around this time Susan came out on the job one day. I knew something was up because it wasn’t often she came on the job. She had come to tell me she was pregnant. I was 32 years old at the time. I was shocked. It took me a while to get used to the idea but after a few days I was ok with it and actually looking forward to it. I started thinking about building us a house. I mean after all a home builder should have a home right? We had some lots we were building on and were about ready to start another one. I picked out a plan I thought would suit us and Began construction. We got it finished and moved in just before the baby was born. We had already started a house next door and I was working there the morning Susan went into labor. We arrived at the hospital At about 10:00 am expecting a normal delivery, little did I know it was gonna be a very long day. She was in labor all day and by about 11:00 pm they decided it wasn’t gonna happen because the baby was trapped in the birth canal. The doctor was a hometown boy matter of fact I had just built him a house. His father was the surgeon called in to do a c- section. At about 11:50 a nurse emerged from the OR and said you have a son “but” and kept walking. She never said what the ” but ” was. I was elated to have a son but couldn’t help wondering what was going on. In a few minutes the doctor came out and told me the baby weighed 10 lbs and 9 ounces. He said there was lots of damage to the uterus, that they had gotten her all closed up and had stopped the bleeding. He said she must never get pregnant again. There were several friends there. They all congratulated me and we enjoyed a few laughs. I waited until after I saw her and the doctors assured me everything was alright then I went home. I was exhausted. I had just gotten undressed and ready for bed when the door bell rang. Two of my friends were there. They told me things had turned bad and I needed to return to the hospital. They were either evasive or didn’t understand exactly what was going on because they weren’t too forthcoming with information. When we arrived at the hospital the surgeon came to me and said ” Allen we are sitting on a powder keg. Her uterus has ruptured she is bleeding profusely, we have got to get back to surgery but can’t until we get some blood. She has the RH factor. Which means the blood is rare. We will have to find some donors and get some brought in as fast as we can. Now you find a place and sit down. I will do everything I can to save her.” I stood there in shock he turned and hurried off to do whatever it was he needed to do. I found out later ,after I kept seeing people come in the back door of the hospital, that they have a list of people with that type of blood to call on in emergencies. The Oklahoma Highway Patrol also relayed eight pints of blood from Maclester. It was a hectic night. Finally somewhere around 3:00 am the surgery was finished and the Doctor told me things went well. After Susan was coherent we decided on a name. I knew I would name him after my closest friend so I decided on Gary Cameron Crawford. Another worry was the cost of all this. We had health insurance but we didn’t have maternity coverage. After all we thought we were out of the baby business. We had saved enough to cover the normal delivery but this was gonna be lots more. At that time a normal delivery was about $1500.00. I quickly learned this bill was about $5800.00. I actually took the baby home a few days before Susan was dismissed. My mother helped me with him so we did fine. After Susan was dismissed we arranged a visit with the hospital administrator to talk about the bill. I mean $5800.00 in 1976 was a lot of money. I am forever grateful to him, Jerry Hulin, for his help. I don’t know all the ins and outs of insurance billing but thank god he did because somehow he got it covered and paid for. Thanks again Jerry Hulin May you Rest In Peace. In a short time it was business as usual. Susan was back to work I was building houses and life was great. I absolutely loved the building business. I was still playing every Saturday night at the Nevada Club. We would practice every Thursday night and play on Saturday.

Next Life goes on