Chapter 24
Joe and Mary became even closer over the next few years. They saw each other as much as possible. Joe visited Mary at Stanford, several times. Mary concentrated on school and during the summers, she returned to San Francisco, worked full time as a server, and helped with KCK, which was becoming more successful each year. Before long, it was Mary’s senior year of college. She was on track to graduate with honors.
Matt finished high school with an outstanding academic record, and was accepted to Columbia University to study journalism.
Even though he was attending school in New York, and his girlfriend Hannah Alexander was across the country attending UCLA, their relationship flourished.
Matt was also writing articles and short stories for national publications. He returned home to California as often as possible.
Mark was a junior in high school and was a star pitcher as well as the team’s best hitter. College scouts were watching him closely.
He was approached by a minor league team wanting to sign him immediately. After discussing it with his mother, they decided that he should finish college first.
Mark was on the football team, played the piano, and sang in the choir. In the Boy Scouts, he was working towards his Eagle Scout award.
Luke was a sophomore in high school and had come to accept his dyslexia, but got angry when people called it a disability. He preferred to think of it as a personal challenge instead.
He was becoming a great chef, for his age. He had won several cooking competitions and his dream was to go to a gourmet cooking school in Paris. He loved to play golf and was quite good. He played the saxophone and was active in the Boy Scouts, church and school choirs.
John was in 8th grade. He would be confirmed that spring. He loved playing the drums and was part of a small middle school band. He played baseball and was active in the Boy Scouts.
Paul was in the 6th grade. He played the violin, played football and was in little league. He loved to play chess and could beat anyone in his family. He was also a Boy Scout.
Sarah and Becca were in the third grade and were both active in Girl Scouts. Sarah played the harp and Becca played the piano so well that she was now being tutored by a piano instructor from Stanford.
Both girls sang in the church children’s choir, and they both loved to play soccer and do gymnastics.
Joe was more active in the lives of all of the kids than ever before. He was scoutmaster for the Boy Scout troop and was Cookie Dad for Sarah and Becca’s Girl Scout troop. He spent a lot of time tutoring the kids and helping Betty to chaperone them at activities, and chauffer them around to their activities.
Joe’s company; SaraCom was doing quite well. SaraCom’s success, in addition to all of his Microsoft stock and the rest of his stock portfolio, gave Joe a net worth of over 400 million dollars. He continued to donate to several charities and was able to stay out of the public eye. Francisco’s had become one of the top ten restaurants in the city.
To Love, Honor and Cherish Page 24