“It is time for Sarah and those who love her to celebrate – and we want to thank you for the role that you have played in making that celebration come to fruition.”
Dear ALB, P.C.,
It is time for our daughter and those who love her to celebrate – and we want to thank you for the role that you have played in making that celebration come to fruition. The event known as “closing” takes place for our daughter in the next couple of weeks, when she purchases her first home, Apartment 1B. The apartment’s kitchen is a mess with a crumbling linoleum floor and cabinet doors held in place with a rubber band, the walls need plaster and paint, a bare bulb dangles in the entryway, and the apartment itself is on the first floor which, per the appraisal is the least desirable location. Warranting, as it does, a mark-down of some $5000 in value. But the building is lovely, the lay-out good, the location excellent, and there are those beautiful high ceilings and large windows looking out on a lively street scene. In short, with a little elbow grease and TLC, Apt. 1B will become a gorgeous home.
For her this is not an end, not just a “closing”, it is a new beginning, a place she can call her own – her very first home – paid for, every cent, with savings generated from her labor. We Mainers are a hard-working lot but salaries are low. Sarah, worked for her money since the age of 5. She, with her brothers, picked and sold wild raspberries in a little Maine village form the back of her grandmother’s station wagon. Charging $2.50 per pint, Sarah socked away the proceeds. Since then she worked at a variety of jobs between childhood and college graduation: babysitter, house cleaner, library aid, camp counselor, caterer, waitress, farmer’s market stand operator, nanny. She even shingled roofs – one of four simultaneous jobs she performed during an exhausting summer after her junior year. In each job, she spent little and saved for her goals. When she finally graduated from college, she searched for three months for a job, refusing many options and looking persistently for a position that would pay her enough to have something left for “saving”. Often friends asked her to join them for a night out or a ski trip. When she could, she joined them. More often than not, she did not: “No”, she said, “I have used my spending allotment for the month.” “But we will all be getting a bonus in a couple of months!” they protested. “I don’t spend money I don’t have,” she said. This apartment represent years of “No, I can’t”, years of savings, years of planning, years of dreams.
So, if ever you get discouraged and imagine that you are a cog in the busy wheel that is New York, that what you do in your work is unimportant or unvalued, think again.
Your actions help people realize their dreams. Your kindness and diligence and hard work make the process smooth and less stressful, help a young buyer save hard-earned dollars in a myriad of ways, and imbue a home purchase with the warmth and support of real people, reaching out a hand to help a fellow traveler achieve a long-held dream.
On the day of the “closing” or the “new beginning” or whatever one wants to call it, she will no doubt be scared – this is a big undertaking, terrifying really, but she will also be excited and …..
Brenda