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  Suddenly, to Arthur’s surprise, his father was laughing, actually belly laughing, and saying to Alexis, “Okay, I want to go to both of those places.”

  Arthur shook his head in disbelief; then his frown turned into a smile as he began to relax and listen to his daughters expertly manipulate the conversation to include their grandparents. His parents were actually engaging and enjoying a discussion with his girls.

  The afternoon of July 17, 1996, Douglas and Marsha had a limousine pick them up at their Upper East Side apartment and take them to JFK Airport to board a plane for Paris, their celebratory Fiftieth Anniversary trip. Marsha and her travel agent had meticulously planned a vacation in Paris that would include the best restaurants, hotels, and designer-boutiques. A side trip to Burgundy in east central France would be the highlight of the trip.

  As Douglas and Marsha settled into their first-class seats, Douglas took his wife’s hand. “I think this is going to be a wonderful trip, a very fitting way to celebrate our fifty years of marriage. And to commemorate this occasion right at the beginning of our adventure, I’ve ordered some Dom Perignon which the stewardess will serve when we are at the correct altitude.”

  “Douglas, you think of everything,” Marsha said. “But now they are called Flight Attendants, not stewardesses.” She smiled and leaned over to kiss him on his cheek.

  “What? Oh right. Sorry, I forgot.” Then Douglas changed the subject, “Marsha, I think when we return to New York, we should make plans to visit our granddaughters in Arizona. During our brunch at the Tavern, I found Arthur’s girls to be very witty, smart, and clever, and I think we should try to get to know them better.”

  His wife smiled, “You liked them because they paid attention to you and laughed at your jokes.”

  Douglas chuckled, “Actually, I think our New York grandchildren are a little dull and predictable. Arthur’s girls are refreshing.”

  “Douglas, our daughters and their husbands have done a marvelous job of raising our grandchildren. They followed our example by raising children with the highest standards and following the proper code of ethics that people expect from our social stratum.” Marsha countered giving her husband a questioning look. “Two of our grandsons will graduate from Harvard in a couple of years, one has been accepted at Yale, and our granddaughters will make lovely debutantes and marry well. You should be very pleased with our New York grandchildren; they will carry on our legacy and make both of us proud.”

  Nodding his head to agree with his wife, Douglas turned to her with a sly smile, “You are correct, dear, but sometimes a little spunk and initiative makes for a more interesting life. Darn it, Marsha, I want to go to that Greasewood Flats place where the Hells Angels eat hamburgers with the Wall Street tycoons and talk to each other. Wouldn’t that be a kick in the pants?”

  “As long as those biker dudes don’t shoot you,” Marsha laughed. “Douglas, we both agreed we didn’t like Arizona when we visited for Arthur’s wedding. But, I concur that Arthur’s daughters were charming and if you want to go to Phoenix, then we will go.”

  Douglas smiled back and patted her hand as the airplane slowly backed out of the gate.

  TWA Flight #800 was delayed a little while longer and twelve minutes after takeoff, it exploded above the Atlantic Ocean.

  The months that followed were tough, but Arthur was Strong!

  The money that his parents had left him enabled him to pay off his home in Warner Ranch and buy a historic-style office building in Old Towne Square in downtown Tempe. A few years before, Arthur had left the large Phoenix architect firm to join with another architect to form their own unique enterprise. He and his partner decided they loved designing individual family homes rather than huge impersonal office buildings. Arthur realized that he would probably never have an opportunity to design his own “art-deco Chrysler Building.” Now the two designers would be located in a distinctive location where their new business could flourish.

  Arthur’s two sisters received the lion’s share of their parents’ estate, but Arthur didn’t complain.

  Alexis and Charlotte each received a small trust fund that would pay for their college education and leave enough money for a small down payment on a modest home. His parents’ attorney asked Arthur to stay for a few moments after the reading of the Will. After his two sisters air-kissed him good-bye and wished him a safe trip home, Arthur watched them as they exuberantly left the attorney’s office.

  “Arthur, I’m so sorry about this horrible Trust. I begged and begged your parents to reconsider and to be fair. I wanted them to distribute their wealth equally, but to no avail. I had hoped they would eventually change their minds, and I never expected both of them to die so tragic and sudden. They justified the distribution on the fact that your sisters live in New York and have more expenses. They thought living in Arizona was much cheaper and you had chosen a simpler life style.”

  “Well, that’s partly true, and my two sisters and their trust fund husbands have created an expensive life style much like my parents. You have to remember, my sisters followed our parents’ rules; I didn’t. I was supposed to go to Harvard, become a banker or stockbroker, and marry a debutante. Instead, I moved to Arizona, married a woman who works in a medical lab to find treatments for incurable diseases, I design beautiful homes for people and I have two lovely daughters. I had the privilege to discover an aunt and uncle who loved me for who I was and embraced me as a part of their family. They showed me how rewarding life could be if you didn’t follow the rules from the Elite’s Playbook. I knew my parents would eventually punish me for my decisions. It’s okay; I love my family and my life in the Wild West.”

  “Arthur,” the attorney continued. “You do know TWA will eventually make a settlement with the families who lost loved ones on that plane. That settlement WILL be distributed equally among the three of you. It may take several years, but I expect it will be somewhere between $2 to $2.5 million and you will receive one-third of that.”

  Many years later, Arthur would reflect on that conversation he had in his parents’ attorney’s office and wished he had fought harder to acquire more of his parents’ wealth. It would have come in handy during his family’s current crisis. Maybe with that extra money he could have saved his oldest daughter, helped his son-in-law, and gotten his own life back on track.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  A Skiing Accident

  February 1999

  Alexis and her mother were from the same mold, they had the same interests; they both loved reading the latest novels, working in the flower and vegetable gardens, and taking long walks. So many afternoons Alexis would do her homework in her mother’s study. She felt safe among her mother’s things. Especially the days that Nora would stay home doing catch-up paperwork; Alexis would lay on the floor in her office with open notebooks and schoolbooks enjoying her mother’s presence. Nora would have classical music playing softly as they both completed their projects. They had a wonderful mother-daughter relationship and it had flourished during those few months that Charlotte was living with her new husband.

  Nora was a wonderful wife, mother, and medical researcher. She was on the verge of discovering something very important, a possible link between a rare genetic condition that causes fatal brain damage and an enzyme deficiency. Nora was working overtime trying to make the connection and hopefully a cure. She was exhausted. Arthur suggested a short vacation away from her work; she eagerly agreed, hoping time away from her work would clear her mind and allow her to refocus when she returned.

  Skiing is a wonderful, invigorating, and exciting winter sport. Every year the Strong family would rent a cabin during Christmas break at the Snowbowl Ski Resort. Alexis enjoyed downhill, but like her dad, was a cautious skier. Her mother and sister were the daredevils and the more difficult the trail, the more they loved it.

  After a heavy February snowstorm, Arthur booked a cabin for a weekend at Snowbowl and asked Jeff and Maryann, a couple they enjoy skiing with, to jo
in them. On Saturday, Arthur and Jeff skied the Dutchman, a fairly easy run for two experienced skiers. Nora and her best friend and coworker, Maryann, skied the expert Spur Catwalk trail, which flowed, into the treacherous Sundance trail at full speed. Nora took a nasty spill and tumbled head first down the hill off the trail. Hitting her head on the frozen snow-covered ground while her leg collided with a large rock caused unbelievable pain. Shaking off her injuries and refusing help from a concerned member of the ski patrol, she regained her footing and skied to the end of the run. When they got back to the cabin, Nora’s head was throbbing, she could barely stand on her injured leg, and her neck was getting stiff, but she dismissed any talk of going to the ER. Arthur handed Nora two Tylenols and a glass of water. After she swallowed the pills, he suggested she take a warm bath to relax her aching muscles. Nora’s headache became excruciating and was accompanied by nausea, vomiting, and dizziness. Arthur asked Maryann to call for an ambulance while he helped his wife get dressed. Maryann called 9-1-1 but was told it would be faster if the patient could be driven to the hospital as a horrific multicar crash on the I-40 was utilizing all available emergency vehicles. As Arthur carefully bundled up his wife and helped her into the car, Maryann called the ER and told them a patient experiencing head trauma was headed their way. Nora got worse as Arthur drove as fast as he dared on the slick, icy roads and immediately breathed a sigh of relief as they pulled into Flagstaff Medical Center’s Emergency Room. Attendants were waiting for Nora and rushed her into the trauma center.

  Arthur parked the car and ran into the ER. Checking-in at the desk required filling out numerous forms and handing over his wife’s insurance cards. Asking to borrow a phone, Arthur called Martha, Nora’s mother. After retelling the story of the ski accident, he comforted Martha that the doctors were optimistic that Nora was going to be okay. Martha reassured Arthur that she would head to their home to inform the girls about their mother and promised she would stay with them until he and Nora returned to the Valley. Arthur returned to the waiting room. Eventually, a tired-looking, young doctor pulling off his green surgical cap sat next to him. The doctor confirmed that Nora had sustained a substantial head trauma called an epidural hematoma and he had just performed an emergency procedure to remove the hematoma, which released the pressure from her brain; he believed she would make a full recovery. Arthur was told that Nora would remain in Recovery for an hour or so then be taken to another floor for more testing. Arthur was encouraged by this young doctor’s confidence, but angry with himself for not overriding Nora’s objections and taking her to the hospital immediately.

  Four hours later, after all the probing, testing, and CT scans, Arthur was led into the ICU where Nora was hooked up to several IVs, beeping medical instruments, and scary machines with flashing lights. Her head was wrapped in a white bandage while purple and blue bruises were forming on her forehead and around her eyes. She looked like a tiny doll—pale, helpless, and out of place. She smiled a weak, weary smile when she saw him, and Arthur gently touched her hand and told her she was going to be okay. She smiled, so grateful she was going to recover. Nora breathed a sigh of relief and closed her eyes. A nurse told Arthur that he would be allowed to spend the night in her room. Exhausted by the events of the day, Arthur fell into a deep, dreamless sleep in an uncomfortable chair beside Nora’s bed until he was startled awake when all her machines started blinking and alarms started bellowing. Then he heard the hospital’s loudspeaker blaring out the dreaded “Code Blue, Code Blue.”

  The doctors were wrong. A complication called transtentorial herniation occurred which resulted in respiratory arrest. Nora died before the doctors could rush back into her room to resuscitate her.

  Arthur now had to really become Strong Arthur. Charlotte was twenty years old; Alexis had just turned seventeen in September and was a senior in high school.

  Arthur was traumatized over the loss of his beloved Nora. He was overwhelmed with the responsibility of being a single parent, missing the love of his life and confidant, and being the person who had to provide advice and consolation to his two daughters. The only thing that eased his pain was work. Arthur became even more of a workaholic and threw himself into his various architectural projects. He loved new assignments that forced him to concentrate on all the details that went into designing a new or remodeled house. It kept his mind busy and away from reliving over and over the tragic ski accident.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  The New Client

  October 2002

  It was late fall, when Arthur looking out of his office window saw Judith Jensen Edman open the door to his office. He recognized her from seeing her at various charity events that he and Nora had attended. Judith came from a family of wealth and class. Unfortunately, finding happiness in marriage didn’t seem to work for her. Judith tended to marry handsome younger men who had no other purpose in life than spending her money and enjoying the lifestyle she could provide. Judith kept her father’s name even as a young bride. She knew the power and prestige the Edman name carried in Arizona. Plus it saved time and money not having to change her name each time she disposed of a husband. Arthur had heard Judith was in the process of divorcing her third husband and was currently dissolving the marriage with the least financial damage to her assets.

  It’s been over three years since I lost my Nora, but it still seems like yesterday. I can’t stop thinking about her. In fact, I was daydreaming about Nora on one of our vacations in San Diego with the girls and wistfully wishing I could go back in time, when Ms. Edman walked into my place of business. Judith was a couple of years older than Nora, but still lovely. Her stylish short blond hair, piercing blue eyes, and her beautiful outfit complimented her aura of sophistication. I shook my head to clear the fragments of the long ago vacation memories from my mind and stood up to greet Ms. Edman.

  “Hello, Ms. Edman. So nice to see you again,” Arthur said as he reached out to shake her hand.

  “Arthur, it’s good to see you too. Please call me Judith,” she said as she offered her hand.

  “How are your girls? They must be college-age by now.”

  “Yes, Alexis will graduate with her BA in English next year and has plans for getting her doctorate. Charlotte took some time off from college, but received her BA in Business last year and now has a position in commercial real estate loans at the Bank of America.”

  “I’m happy to hear the girls are doing well; I know losing their mother had to be devastating for your whole family.”

  Arthur looked down, unable to look into Ms. Edman’s eyes. “Yes, it was. What can I do for you today?”

  Judith smiled, “I bought some property in the Tempe’s Circle G Ranch, and I want you to design a beautiful new home for me. Are you familiar with the development?”

  “Yes, I am. In fact, I was on that site a few weeks ago for another client. Beautiful area. Do you have an idea of what kind of home you want built?”

  “I do. Down to all the details,” she smiled as she looked at Arthur, “My lot is over two acres, and I will be able to keep my horses onsite.”

  Arthur and Judith sat down in his office to discuss the plans for her new home. Judith Edman smiled at this still handsome, but sad man. She knew he came from a wealthy family in New York, had been to all the proper schools, and was honorable and classy. His girls were either out of the house or would be soon. Since her last three marriages were failures, maybe she needed to look for a different kind of man. She was done with the gorgeous, charming playboys. Perhaps a mature professional man who came with a successful business and a healthy bank account would be the answer. Judith smiled at Arthur. Arthur glanced up and smiled back; he was thrilled he had a new project to dig into, lots of distractions, as he knew Judith Edman would be a stickler for details.

  Spring 2003

  Arthur was whistling while he was working. The plans for Judith Edman’s house had been submitted to the City of Tempe for approval. They came back with a couple of modifications that h
e had amended and resubmitted. He was so proud of the beautiful home he had designed for her. He remembered Nora joking about Judith and her silly extravagant ideas. Nora had worked with Judith on several political issues, so she got a feel for her character. Judith lived a “showy” life with emphasis on possessions, playing tennis, and created “doing” lunch in grandiose restaurants to an art form; Nora spent her days in a medical lab, looking for cures to eradicate deadly diseases.

  Arthur started to look forward to having Judith come into the office to look over his plans for her home. He began to enjoy her company, her cheerfulness, and her femininity.

  Things were better at home. Alexis was focusing on finishing her degree and starting her doctorate; her plans to teach English to college students was within reach. Charlotte found working in the commercial loan department at the Bank of America challenging, and she was doing well. She had just met Christopher Barnett, who was a financial planner on the floor below her office. Christopher was a nice young man who had a future, and Charlotte seemed to be finally settling down and accepting some responsibility. She was finally becoming an adult—she was after all going to be twenty-five in June. Arthur thought the rough patches of raising two daughters were over, and he would be able to relax a little.

  Arthur’s phone rang. It was the City of Tempe. Judith’s plans had received final approval and they could begin construction. Arthur picked up his phone and placed a call to Judith.

  “Hi, Judith. Great news, the city has approved the plans, and we can begin construction on your new home,” Arthur explained. “I think this calls for a celebration dinner. May I take you out to dinner tomorrow night? I was thinking about The House of Tricks, if that suits you?” Arthur was shocked those words came out of his mouth. He was asking a woman out on a sort-of date.