It couldn’t have happened
at a better time because as life would have it Ray was notified his entire
department was being phased out which meant that 300 employees would be jobless
just before the Christmas Holidays, many of whom had been there for over 15
years. He himself had worked for his
employer, Just Juice a beverage company, for the past 22 years; he was
literally three years shy of retiring. They
offered a decent severance package (including dental, vision and medical), but it
that was only going to last for about 12 months. He didn’t know how he was going to break the
news to his wife, Sharon, so he decided he would wait until the weekend. Over the next four days he worried about
what she was going to say, think and how she would react. She wasn’t money driven but she had been on worker’s
compensation from a work related injury two years ago, her employer was playing
hardball and it was becoming quite stressful for her which often triggered her
injury. It was a vicious cycle so Ray
did his best to avoid stressful conversations but this was something that he
couldn’t avoid or sweep under the rug. All of their retirement plans had been altered
when she went out on leave which was one of the reasons he placed more energy
on the lemonade once he saw that they were making a profit from it. Now that he was being laid off those plans
were probably gonna go right out the window.
He knew the manufacturing
business inside out but where was he going to start all over again at the age
of 55? He had kids that were still in school:
Rayna was still in braces; Raymond, II aka Ray-2 was a sophomore in
college; Ricky was a junior in college and Rita was graduating from high school
in June of the following year. They made
good grades, they were focused and there wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do for
them, but there was no way he was going to steal their dreams from them and
deprive them of the things he and Sharon committed to, he just didn’t know how
he was going to do it. It was devastating news to the family.
Saturday afternoon he
decided to make some ribs to go with the “leftover” potato salad and greens Sharon had made the day before. There
wasn’t any more cornbread so he made a fresh batch of hot water cornbread which
was a real treat for them. They washed the leftovers down with some ice
cold mint strawberry lemonade, a new recipe Ray had been experimenting with and
they went bananas over it. He then braced
himself and broke the news to the family.
There was complete silence for about two minutes. He dare not say a word, he just stared into
his glass of lemonade and watched as the condensation formed and dripped down
the glass onto his coaster which Sharon insisted they used to prevent water
rings from forming on the dining room table.
Finally Sharon broke the
silence and asked the question, what do you do when life throws you a bunch of
lemons? Rayna and Rita looked at their
mother like she was crazy; Ray-2 shrugged his shoulders but Ricky and Ray got
it almost immediately but they didn’t say anything. Finally Sharon answered her own question, she
said: “you make lemonade.” At that she turned to Ray and said: “Look Babe, we are practically debt free from
the lemonade business we have been playing at, can you imagine what would
happen if we really focused our energies into making it profitable? You’ve been in manufacturing for your entire
adult life; you know lots of caterers, you love interacting with people and we
have enough talent within our family to make this a legitimate business. We’ve talked about starting our own business
after retirement and though it hasn’t worked out the way we thought it would,
we can still make it work.”
Ray couldn’t believe how
calm Sharon was. She didn’t seemed
stressed at all and the mere fact that the kids hadn’t gotten up from the table
to move on to more things of interest had him absolutely stunned. At that very moment it seemed like something
had awakened inside him or like something had been ignited and the ideas
started to flood his mind so quickly it was almost scary. He looked at Rita who was a great note taker,
administrator and loved to organize things and asked her to start taking notes
for him and then he asked each of them what they believed their area of
strength was. Ricky was an amazing
artist; Reyna could sell sand on the beach; Ray-2 was a social media guru and
his wife, Sharon, kept everyone on task and of course he had the manufacturing
experience and contacts.” At that they
all started to chime in about the possibilities and they began to dream as a
family as they spoke life in to their father and husband. They made a commitment to each other that
night that they were going to give it “the lemonade business” 110% because
failing wasn’t an option. Ricky
committed to creating a logo; Reyna committed to research labels and bottles
that were a bit more professional and unique, Ray-2 committed to create the
social media avenues and Reyna had already started to think about marketing
strategies and Sharon gave everyone timelines for their projects.
They were planted at the
dinner table over the next several hours eating the last of the leftovers and chasing it with mint cherry lemonade as they discussed their future as a
family. They ended the evening with
warmed walnut brownies ala mode and this prayer which was led by Rayna, the
youngest: “Father, thank you for our Dad
and Mom. Thank you that we have everything
we need, each other. We’re gonna give
this lemonade business our very best and we’ll leave the rest up to you. In Jesus Name, Amen.” It was late and everyone else went to bed, except
Ray, who decided he wanted to stay up a while longer. He felt a pulling on his heart and knew he
needed to spend some time with his Father.
After the room had been emptied, he went into the family room, stoked
the fireplace, sat before it and allowed the heat to penetrate his body. He listened as the wood crackled and popped
and he watched the flames as they seemed to dance rapidly over the charring
wood.
It wasn’t long before his eyes
began to sting from the tears that were forming and quickly began to stream down
his cheeks. He had held it together as
long as he could but now the emotion came raging like a bull in a china cabinet. The more he thought about what had just
transpired the faster the tears filled his eyes. And then it happened, he felt the
overwhelming presence of his Father fill the room, the gentle soothing hands of
his Son, Jesus on his shoulders as the Holy Spirit reminded him of the dream he
had years ago about leaving Corporate America and following his dream to start
a family business and here it was right before him. Who would have thought that the lemon trees
he planted, pruned and harvested with his children when they first purchased
their home would have yielded such success?
Just like
Ray and his family you can chose to turn tragedy(ies) into triumph, it’s a
simple matter of choice. Genesis 20:50
(NLT): You intended to harm me, but God
intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the
lives of many people. Nothing just happens, it all has meaning, you
have to be willing to look for it, shoot, some times you have to dig for it.
I’m out of time, that’s it
for now.
In His New Excellence
Tania Not Tanya
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