His father stood and started pacing the room. “Well, there are a few options. We could put her in an assisted living—Alzheimer’s unit, which I am not ready to do. She’s not that bad yet. We could both move to an assisted living place and then she’d have access to services if she needed them. Or I could hire someone to come here.” He stopped pacing and sat down again and looked at David.

“She’s at the point where she really can’t be left alone for long. If I just run out to the store, it’s fine, but longer than an hour and it’s potentially unsafe. She left the stove on the other day and luckily, I was home. The smoke alarm went off and everything was fine. But if I hadn’t been here…”

“How have you been managing? What do you do when you go to work?” David’s father worked as an attorney and had an office downtown, near Main Street and the waterfront.

“I’ve been working from home for the past few months, except for when I need to meet in person with a client, and then I run into town and back as quickly as possible.”

No wonder his father looked so exhausted.

“What do you want to do?” David asked.

“I want things to stay as normal as possible. I don’t think I’m ready to move to an assisted living place, not yet. I think if I can get someone to come in here maybe every afternoon during the week, then I could go into the office.”

“That sounds like a good plan. I can help you find someone.”

His father looked grateful. “I was hoping you’d say that.”

Paula’s grandfather didn’t believe in wasting any time. When she told him first thing Monday morning that she was accepting the general manager position, he’d been pleased but then surprised her by saying, “Good, because David Connolly, that consultant I mentioned to you? He starts tomorrow, and so do you.”

So, the next morning they all gathered in the conference room around a big oval table, for the weekly managers’ meeting. Paula sat next to Hallie and across from Nick.

“How’s Andrea doing?” she asked her cousin. Paula still felt somewhat guilty that she was taking over Andrea’s job.

“She’s ok. Disappointed of course and pissed off. I saw her on Sunday for pizza with the family.”

“Did she say what she is going to do?”

“She’s not ready to give up on a GM role somewhere. She has a few weeks before she is coming back, so I guess she’ll feel the market out.”