“I came back… I’ve postponed the meeting. I just knew something was up, now you’re going to tell me…”
He turns me around to face him, holding my face in his hands, wiping my tears away with his thumbs, touching them to his own lips.
“Out with it, Trudi. We don’t have secrets, remember?” he whispers and I take him by the hand leading him to the bathroom, pointing to the drawer, but I can’t even look up.
“I’m scared Kane…” is all I can manage.
“You’re scared of the drawer?” he asks.
I give him my best mean face, and punch his arm.
“I’m scared our kids will look more like me than you, there. I said it. It’s bugging me and I’m terrified we’ll have a dozen chubby kids growing up with a dad who looks like an Adonis.”
Kane’s head’s shaking gently, he hugs me first, then holds me to him, holding me like a child as he speaks softly.
“Trudi… I love you, you know that. All the children we have will be the most precious things we have, that we can share together, as a family.”
I agree, but I still can’t help but feel frightened.
“I… I know… I just…No! Don’t look, don’t open it!” I cry out, Kane firmly clutching me to his side as he opens the drawer.
I can’t look. The suspense is killing me, but there’s still a part of me that doesn’t want to know. I’m not ready. It feels like I’ll never be ready.
“Trudi…?” Kane says in his most serious voice.
I can only look up at him in a question.
“I just wanna say that I hope all our kids do look like you, exactly like you,” he says firmly.
“Why?” I ask him, not wanting to believe him, but knowing he’s telling me the truth.
“So every time I look into their eyes, every time I kiss them goodnight and good morning, I can see you in them… so I can have more of my Trudi to love.”
I gasp aloud, throwing myself at Kane, burying myself into his chest. He always knows what to say, what to do to make me feel a hundred percent, even when I’m low or just acting plain crazy.
“By the way, I think you’ve been promoted… Mommy…” he says, and his face lights up as he holds me out lifting me off the ground as he spins me around.
“We’re having a baby, baby!”
EXTENDED EPILOGUE
10 YEARS LATER
Kane
“Look! Daddy! There’s Mommy!” Sky calls out through the darkened silence, the whole auditorium becoming a wave of muted laughter from her cuteness overload.
We’re right up front, and I know Trudi can see us, she gives Sky a special little wave from her seat next to the podium and her eyes meet mine. I’ve never been so proud of her, if that’s at all possible, every day she makes me even prouder. Every day I love her just that little bit more.
It’s a Barret Industries awards show, but it’s not my company. It’s Trudi’s. She’s set up her own real estate empire. And she’s done all of it in her spare time, in between raising our three beautiful kids, Sky, Taylor and Phoenix. All in between putting up with my endless schedules and insisting that she take breaks and come on holidays with us all the time.
The award she’s getting isn't a company one though, it’s a federal government award, recognition for her tireless service but also the announcement of her rent to own program for single moms to be implemented on a national level by congress into the public housing budget.
In ten years she’s taken the idea from a block of apartments she renovated, to whole communities being built up with quality, affordable housing that tenants can actually own themselves over time.
Sky and Taylor sit on either side of me, with little Phoenix bouncing on my knee. He’s usually the loudest of the crew, but today he’s in awe of his mom as much as anyone else.
There’s speeches from government dignitaries, even some speakers from overseas wanting to use her finance and administration model for overseas communities.
The kids, usually so restless, and myself not being one for sitting still for long periods, are all in a trance, watching Trudi.
Once it’s her turn to accept an award, and give a speech, I’m glad the mic’s up so loud, the P.A drowning out our gasps and sounds of admiration. I use my baby son’s bib to repeatedly wipe something from my eye.
It’s the single proudest day of our whole family’s life, with Trudi being Trudi, saving the best or worst surprise for last. Worst for me, I get terrible stage fright, but the kids love it and Sky wrestlers the mike from her older brother, vying for just as much attention as their beautiful Mom.
She has all of us get up onstage with her, to thundering applause as she introduces our kids, three and lastly myself, who I’m thankful for, for once, that nobody present really recognizes even though my name’s on the building.
It’s all about Trudi, and that’s how I always want it to be. How it will be forever.
I’ve offered to help her out, financially and with staff, contacts, the whole nine yards with her projects, but she’s always done everything herself. Done it all her way and with nothing but complete success.
The main difference with everything she’s set up, like everything she does in her personal life too, with her family life, she’s always giving back.
Every single one of Trudi’s companies is not for profit and has been set in tone to continue to give, long after we’re both gone. Giving our kids and their kid’s kid’s something that they too can be proud of.
There’s an hour of questions, then the media to get through, but the kids, just like me, are so amazed by their Mom that we all get
