Whether I liked it or not, sixty was approaching fast. I felt regret and remorse for days after the evening spent with Clayton; but for a moment in time, he made me feel like a woman again. In some way, I needed to lose a little of Brady and regain some of me.

For several nights, I pondered how I might do this. I prayed, I thought; and I prayed some more. Unceasingly for hours at times. No answers immediately came, but somehow I felt an eerily calm rather than my normal attitude of impatience while going thru the process.

The following Monday, I sat down with Clayton to have a chat and quit Edward Jones. While Edward Jones had provided me with a respite, some income and some benefits the costs now outweighed the benefits, and it was time to move on. My physical, mental  and emotional health had been restored, and I needed to start a new chapter of my life.

Prom! Isabella been asked by a number of boys to go to the prom, and eventually chose a "brainiac" over a "musclehead". This made me proud and I felt honoured. "Had I really been raising her to see the best in herself and others" , I pondered? "And where had Brady influenced her in this manner along the way", was my second thought? Nonetheless, it was Brad; ironically, that she would be sharing a VERY short prom evening with.

Chartreuse was to be the color that year, but Isabella had chosen emerald green. The front of the A-frame dress had a diamond patterned sequence design, and she wore her hair up with plenty of curl. She was and had become a beautiful woman; much too fast.