I was admitted to the Maryland Bar in 1976 and shortly after, we sold the store and the building in which we spent more than a quarter century. Momma walked out of the store and swore that she would never work another day in her life. This lasted about two weeks and she let it be known that she was looking for a job. Arnold did business with a storage and moving company, Economy Delivery, Inc. The lady who worked in the office was pregnant and was leaving soon. Arnold spoke to the owner, Vincent Horan, who told Arnold to have Momma come in. She worked there until she retired in 1992. The office and warehouse was located off of Reisterstown Road where the railroad bridge crosses it. It was back along the road which runs East alongside the railroad tracks. It was small and cramped but Momma loved it. She accessed all of her knowledge about how to run a successful business and applied it to Economy Delivery, Inc. The business prospered and moved several times to larger and larger quarters. When Momma reached 65 years of age, she retired. We have remained close friends with Vince and Barbara Horan and keep in touch with then to this day. I suspect that Momma did not want to retire but I had retired two years earlier and this was our chance to do things that we never had time to do during our lives.

About 1989 (I am not certain of the date) all the children were out of the house on their own. It was time to dispose of Byers Court and move on. We were not certain that we would like apartment living so we decided to rent. Ingram Manor was an old apartment building at Park Heights and Slade Avenues owned by Howard Brown. He was rehabilitating the building, apartment by apartment. We looked at an apartment on the fourth floor which was perfect for our needs; living room, dining room, kitchen, two bedrooms, two baths, a den and a balcony. It was not completely rehabilitated but Brown promised to complete the work quickly. He did not keep his promises. We continuously had problems with the air conditioning and the stove and the refrigerator. There was one passenger elevator and one service elevator. They worked and did not work. I spent a good amount of time calling about the deficiencies. I finally went to his office and sat until he would talk to me. It did not help much. We had a lease that expired in June, but in March, we received a letter from Brown demanding that we move immediately. We did with alacrity. Shortly after, we received a letter from his attorney demanding rent for the months until June. I made a copy of Brown’s letter demanding that we move out and sent it to the lawyer. We never heard from him again.

We discovered that we liked apartment living but did not like renting. We discovered the Elmont 12 blocks South of Ingram Manor on Park Heights Avenue. It had the same number of rooms. We lived there on the fourth floor until 1997. Mott and Lucille Stanchfield lived in our villa in Tamarac until 1994. When they moved out and we completely rehabilitated the place, we would go down for various periods of time. We bought a used Dodge Lancer and kept it there so that we would have two vehicles. There were times when we would spend several months there during the years. I tried and tried to convince Momma to sell the Elmont and move to Florida permanently. She resisted. One night we ate Chinese and when we opened up the fortune cookies, they both contained the same message, “You will soon move to a warmer clime.” Claude was transferred to Coral Springs, Florida and the rest of his family would soon follow. Momma relented and we sold the Elmont and we became residents of Florida on January 2, 1997. We took the auto train with our two vehicles to Florida. The villa was small, 1200 square feet and we felt cramped. Momma wanted to move to larger quarters. I used the same formula; go look, find a place you like and if I like it, we’ll buy it. Our next door neighbor in Tamarac moved to Delray Beach. We looked at several homes there and found 7677 Mansfield Hollow Road. And best of all, it was a house. It was 1820 square feet and suited us perfectly. There was a living room, dining room, kitchen, two bedrooms, two full baths, a den and an office. There was a large screened patio which overlooked a lake. There was also a one-car garage. We moved in the day before Thanksgiving, 1999. Momma was 72 years of age and I was 74.